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THE    HUGUENOTS 


HENRY    OF    NAVARRE 


THE    HUGUENOTS 


AND 


Henry  of  Navarre 


BY 

HENKY     M.   BAIRD 

PROFESSOR    IN   THE    UNIVERSITY  OF   THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK  ;    AUTHOR  OF   THE  HISTORY  OF 
THE  RISE  OF  THE  HUGUENOTS  OF  FRANCE 


WITH  MAPS 


VOL.     II. 


NEW    YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1903 


Dc 


Copyright,  1S86,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNERS  SONS 


957841 


TROWS 

PRINTING  AND   BOOKBINDING  COMPANY, 

NEW  YORK. 


CONTENTS 


OF 


VOLUME    SECOND 


BOOK    II. 
CHAPTER    VIII. 

1588. 


Page 

The  Barricades  and  the  Edict  op  Union 3 

Guise  gains  the  Credit  of  routing  the  Germans           ....  3 

Francois  de  Chatillon    ..........  5 

The  King  fears  to  punish  the  seditious  Preachers      ....  5 

He  attempts  to  convert  Heretics 6 

The  Foucaud  Sisters 7 

Palissy  the  Potter 7 

Henry  visits  him  in  the  Bastile 8 

Martyrdom  of  the  Foucaud  Sisters 9 

Royal  Revels 10 

The  League  agrees  upon  the  Articles  of  Nancy 11 

The  Zeal  of  Guise  satisfies  the  Spanish  Ambassador           .         .         .  12 

The  King  labors  fruitlessly  to  win  back  Guise       .....  13 

He  turns  to  Queen  Elizabeth  for  Help 14 

Importance  of  converting  Henry  of  Navarre 14 

Secret  Interview  of  the  King  with  Sir  Edward  Stafford  (February, 

1588) 16 

His  Hopes  founded  on  the  Army  of  the  Reiters  .         .         .         .         .17 

Death  of  the  Prince  of  Conde  (March  5,  1588) 20 

Trial  and  Imprisonment  of  the  Princess 21 

The  Prince's  Death  an  irreparable  Loss 22 

Depression  of  the  King  of  Navarre 24 

Firm  Answer  to  the  Advances  of  the  King  of  France         ...  26 

Roman  Catholic  Conjectures  respecting  Condc's  Successor    ...  26 

The  League  has  no  Desire  for  Peace 28 


VI 


CONTENTS. 


Philip  the  Second  directs  the  League   .... 

The  Duke  of  Guise  reaches  Soissons 

The  Parisians  beg  him  to  hasten  his  Coming 

Guise  unexpectedly  enters  the  Capital  (May  9,  1588) 

He  visits  the  Queen  Mother  ..... 

Surprise  and  Dejection  of  the  King 

The  Duke  comes  to  the  Louvre   ..... 

The  Populace  of  Paris         ...... 

The  Day  of  the  Barricades  (May  12,  1588)   . 

Catharine  negotiates  in  vain 

Henry  of  Valois  escapes  from  his  Capital 

Stanch  Protestantism  of  the  English  Ambassador 

Sir  Edward  Stafford  declines  the  Protection  of  Guise    . 

The  League  intrenches  itself  in  Paris 

Henry  of  Navarre's  Satisfaction     ..... 

How  Paris  might  be  punished  ..... 

The  King's  weak  Protest 

His  undiminished  Hatred  of  Heresy 
Discouragement  of  the  King's  loyal  Subjects 
Treachery  of  the  Royal  Council         .... 

Guise  and  Pope  Sixtus  ....... 

The  King  forced  to  sign  the  Edict  of  Union  (July,  1588) 
Its  intolerant  Provisions         ...... 

The  Secret  Articles    ....... 

Tears  of  the  King,  and  Joy  of  the  Parisians 
Satisfaction  of  Bernardino  de  Mendoza 


Page 
29 
30 
33 
35 


:;: 
38 
40 
41 
43 
15 
46 
47 
48 
50 
51 
51 
52 
53 
.53 
54 

55 

:.: 

58 
59 


CHAPTER    IX. 


1588. 


The  Assembly  of    La    Rochelle,    and    the    Second    States    or 

Blois 00 

Position  of  the  Huguenots  before  the  Law         .....  60 

They  demand  the  Edict  of  January 61 

The  Protestants  not  disheartened IS 

The  lie  de  Marans -.63 

Its  Capture  by  Henry  of  Navarre 

The  Huguenot  Soldiers  pray  and  sing  Psalms 66 

Consternation  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Troops 66 

Other  Successes  of  the  King  of  Navarre 67 

Political  Assembly  of  La  Rochelle  (November)         ....  69 

Address  of  the  King  of  Navarre ?i» 

Cordial  Response  of  the  Delegates 72 

The  Protestant  Prince's  Inconsistencies TO 


CONTENTS. 


VI  l 


Huguenots 


Frank  Remonstrances 

Henry  receives  them  patiently      .... 
He  is  intolerant  of  political  Opposition 
His  Petition  for  "  Instruction  "     .... 
Organization  of  the  Huguenot  Party 

The  Protectors  Council 

Provision  for  Religious  Teachers  and  Education 

The  Consistorial  Party  suspicious  . 

The  Second  States  General  of  Blois 

Guise  made  Lieutenant  General    .... 

Dissimulation  of  Henry  of  Valois    . 
Imprudence  of  Guise,  and  Fears  of  his  Friends    . 
The  King  fails  to  secure  a  Majority 
The  Invincible  Armada         ..... 

Henry  selects  new  Counsellors 

Opening  of  the  States  General       .         ... 

The  King's  renewed  Expressions  of  Hostility  to  the 

The  Fear  of  a  Huguenot  Successor         .  .         . 

Renewal  of  the  Oath  proposed 

Speech  of  Month olon,  Keeper  of  the  Seals    . 

Speech  of  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges 

Speeches  of  Baron  Sennecey  and  the  Prevot  des  Marchands 

The  Edict  of  Union  again  sworn  to  (October  18,  1588) 

Annoyance  of  the  Guises       ........ 

The  Clergy  seeks  to  have  Navarre  declared  incapable  of  succeeding 
The  Tiers  Etat  demands  the  Diminution  of  the  Taxes 
The  Duke  of  Savoy  invades  the  Marquisate  of  Saluzzo 

Guise  not  privy  to  the  Enterprise 

The  King  resolves  upon  the  Murder  of  Guise   . 

Mayenne  is  said  to  have  warned  the  King     . 

Conference  respecting  Guise's  Movements 

The  King  again  swears  to  persevere  in  the  Union 

Assassination  of  the  Duke  of  Guise    . 

And  of  his  Brother,  the  Cardinal 

Henry's  Policy  toward  the  Huguenots 

The  King's  Account  given  to  Catharine  de'  Medici 

The  Huguenots  still  to  be  persecuted 

Character  of  the  Duke  of  Guise    .... 

His  Ambition     ....... 

Illness  and  Death  of  Catharine  de'  Medici  (January 
Her  Character 


5,  1589) 


Pape 

73 
73 

74 
74 
75 
75 
76 
77 
78 
78 
79 
80 
81 
82 
83 
84 
85 
86 
87 


89 
89 
90 
92 
92 
93 
95 
96 
96 
97 


103 
104 
104 
106 
107 
109 
110 
111 


Vlll 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER     X. 


1589. 


the  League 


Open  Rebellion  of  the  League,  and  Union  of  the  two  Krxr,^ 
The  Huguenots  breathe  more  freely  on  the  Death  of  Henry  of  Guise 
But  abstain  from  unseemly  Rejoicing         ...... 

Duplessis  Mornay's  Words  on  the  Event 

The  Struggle  not  ended     ..... 

Capture  of  Niort  by  the  Huguenots 
Contrast  between  Huguenot  Warfare  and  that  of 
Fictitious  Stories  of  Huguenot  Atrocities 
Failure  at  La  Ganache       ..... 

Dissipation  of  the  Army  of  Nevers 

Illness  of  Henry  of  Navarre       .... 

Anxiety  at  La  Rochelle  .... 

Henry's  Religious  Professions   .... 

First  Measures  of  the  King  of  Franco    . 
He  soon  relapses  into  Sluggishness     . 

Fury  of  the  Parisians 

The  "  Seize  "  save  Paris  for  the  League 
Dignified  Attitude  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris 
"  Naked  Processions  "  through  the  Streets 
Resort  to  Magic     ...... 

Arrests  and  Revolutionary  Acts 

The  Sorbonne  absolves  the  People  from  its  Allegi 

Declaration  of  the  Parliament    .... 

Mayenne  made  Lieutenant  General 

Accessions  to  the  League    ..... 

Murder  of  President  Duranti  at  Toulouse 

Desertion  of  Retz  and  Mercoeur 

The  King  re-enacts  the  Edict  of  Union 

And  releases  many  Prisoners     .... 

Cardinal  Morosini,  the  Legate,  remains  at  Court 

The  King  turns  to  Germany  and  Switzerland  for 

Henry  of  Navarre  advances  to  the  Loire 

His  Appeal  to  the  three  Orders 

He  declares  himself  open  to  Conviction 

He  takes  all  Patriots  under  his  Protection 

The  Hope  of  Conversion  held  forth 

The  King  and  Navarre  enter  into  Negotiations 

Truce  between  the  two  Kings  (April  3,  1589) 

The  Huguenots  cross  the  Loire 

Prophecy  of  Gabriel  d' Amours 

The  League  conducts  Navarre  to  the  Throne     . 

Meeting  of  the  two  Kings  (April  30,  1589)     . 


Help 


CONTENTS. 


IX 


Mayenne  attacks  the  Suburbs  of  Tours      .... 
Excesses  of  the  Army  of  the  League  at  Tours  and  elsewhere 
The  Fortunes  of  Henry  of  Valois  improve 

He  advances  toward  the  Capital 

The  Monk  Jacques  Clement 

He  is  encouraged  by  the  Duchess  of  Montpensier 

Clement  comes  to  St.  Cloud 

He  wounds  the  King 

Death  of  Henry  of  Valois  (August  2,  1589) 

Did  he  die  excommunicated  ?...... 

The  murderous  Deed  emanates  from  a  Roman  Catholic    . 
The  Huguenots  never  plot  against  the  Kings  of  France 
Pope  Sixtus  the  Fifth  lauds  Clement  . 

A  Literary  Curiosity 

Character  of  Henry  of  Valois     ....         . 


Page 

149 
150 
152 
153 
154 
155 
156 
156 
158 
159 
160 
161 
162 
162 
163 


CHAPTER    XI. 


1589-1590. 


Arques,  Ivry,  and  the  Siege  op  Paris 

Accession  of  a  Huguenot  King       .... 

Difficulties  of  his  Position 

His  Relations  to  the  Pope 

Huguenot  Strength  in  the  South  of  France 

Religion  not  determined  by  Race  or  Climate 

Paris  and  Nismes       ....... 

Attitude  of  the  late  Adherents  of  Henry  the  Third 
Good  Offices  of  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  Sancy,  and  others 

Selfishness  and  Intrigue 

Marshal  Biron's  Demands  ..... 

The  Purchase  of  Loyalty 

Henry  refuses  to  abjure  instantly       .... 
The  Declaration  of  St.  Cloud  (August  4,  1589)       . 
Ample  Guarantees  for  the  Roman  Catholic  Religion 
Discontent  of  the  Duke  of  Epernon 
Advice  of  Duplessis  Mornay       ..... 
Many  of  the  Huguenots  dissatisfied 

Henry  vindicates  himself 

The  Memory  of  Jacques  Clement  honored  at  Paris 

Cardinal  Bourbon  proclaimed  King 

Decree  of  the  Parliament  of  Toulouse    . 

The  Parliament  of  Bordeaux     ..... 

Henry's  Straits  for  Money  and  Ammunition 

He  marches  into  Normandy 


165 
165 
165 
167 
167 
167 
168 
168 
169 
170 
171 
172 
173 
174 
175 
176 
176 
177 
178 
179 
180 
180 
181 
181 
181 


CONTENTS. 


The  Conflicts  at  Arques         .... 

Henry  returns  toward  Paris 

Successful  Attack  upon  the  Suburbs     . 

License  of  the  League         .... 

The  Duke  of  Savoy  claims  the  French  Crown 

Opposition  of  the  Parliament  of  Grenoble 

Outrages  perpetrated  by  the  Duke\s  Troops  about  Geneva 

Insults  offered  by  the  Legate's  Escort        . 

Singular  Surprise  of  the  Castle  of  Toulon 

Substantial  Fruits  of  Henry's  first  Campaign     . 

Division  of  France  between  Henry  and  the  League 

The  high  Ecclesiastics  support  the  King    . 

Contention  between  the  "  Sixteen  "  and  Mayenne 

The  Legate  forbids  the  Bishops  from  assembling  at  Tours 

Audacity  of  Cardinal  Cajetan         ..... 

Henry  lays  Siege  to  Dreux 

Battle  of  Ivry  (March  14,  1590)     . 

The  King's  brilliant  Success 

Henry's  own  Account    .... 

He  fails  to  push  his  Victory 

Marshal  Biron  and  Francois  d'O  hinder  the  Siege  of  Paris 

Mayenne  implores  Help  from  Philip  and  the  Pope   . 

Altered  Views  of  Sixtus  V.    . 

He  is  denounced  as  a  Miser  and  a  Favorer  of  Heresy 

Philip  II.  protests  against  his  Conduct 

Henry  appears  before  Paris 

Active  Preparations  of  the  Parisians 

The  Sorbonne's  Decision  against  Henry     . 

Death  of  the  old  Cardinal  of  Bourbon 

Progress  of  the  Famine      .... 

Visitation  of  the  Religious  Houses 

The  Besieged  have  recourse  to  strange  Food 

Mission  of  Gondy  and  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons 

Henry's  reply  to  the  Envoys 

Philip's  Claim  to  Paris 

Pusillanimity  of  the  Capital 

Henry's  Tender-heartedness 

Queen  Elizabeth  finds  Fault 

He  justifies  his  Conduct 

Opportune  Approach  of  the  Duke  of  Parma 

The  King's  Perplexity 

Bad  Counsel  of  Marshal  Biron 

The  Siege  raised  (August  30, 1590) 

Brave  M.  de  Canisy 

Parma  takes  Lagny       .... 
Failure  of  a  Night  Attack  on  Paris     . 


to  the  King 


CONTENTS. 


XI 


Page 

The  City  is  provisioned 231 

Capture  of  Corbeil  by  the  Duke 231 

Unfaithfulness  of  Governors  of  Cities   .......  231 

Henry  gives  a  Furlough  to  his  Troops       .         .....  232 

He  pursues  Parma  in  his  Retreat          .......  233 

The  War  in  the  Provinces           ....*...  233 

Henry  abolishes  three  Protestant  Courts        ...          *  234 

Duplessis  Mornay  draws  up  a  Bill  for  the  Relief  of  the  Protestants  .  235 

Henry  approves,  but  afterward  recalls  the  Edict           ....  235 

A  Remonstrance  against  further  Delay 236 

"Huguenot  Patience" 237 

The  King's  Inconsistency 238 

The  Parliament  of  Normandy  and  the  Protestants         ....  239 


The  Story  of  Henry's  White  Plume  at  Ivry 


240 


CHAPTER    XII. 


1591-1592. 


Growth  of  the  Tiers  Parti,  and  Henry's  Difficult  Position 
The  Secretary  of  Lesdiguieres  in  the  Council     . 
"  Le  Jour  des  Farines"  (January  20,  1591) 
Unpopularity  and  Death  of  Sixtus  V.       .  .         . 

Pope  Gregory  XIV.  supports  the  League 
Landriano  sent  as  Papal  Nuncio         .... 
New  Bulls  issued  against  Henry 

The  Parliament  of  Chalons  orders  them  to  be  burned 
And  the  Nuncio  to  be  arrested       .... 
The  Bulls  introduce  Divisions  in  the  Royalist  Party 
Ambition  of  the  young  Cardinal  Bourbon     . 
The  Tiers  Parti  summon  the  King  to  abjure 
The  Remonstrance  of  Angers         .... 
An  Appeal  to  low  Motives  ..... 

The  Remonstrance  suppressed       .... 
Henry  jeers  at  the  Cardinal's  Pretensions 
Gregory  incites  Paris  to  persevere 
M.  de  Luxembourg's  Letter  to  the  Pope    . 
Duplessis  Mornay  dissuades  the  King  from  writing  to  the 
Instructions  prepared  for  Luxembourg      . 

Parliament  objects  to  his  Mission 

Henry  announces  his  Purpose  to  do  Justice  to  the  Protestants 

Declaration  of  Mantes  (July,  1591) 

Henry's  forcible  Address  .         .         .         .         .         .         . 


Pope 


242 
242 
244 
245 
246 
247 
248 
248 
248 
249 
250 
251 
251 
254 
255 
256 
257 
258 
259 
260 
262 
262 
262 
263 


Xli 


CONTENTS. 


Cardinal  Bourbon  alone  objects     .... 

Abrogation  of  the  intolerant  "  Edicts  of  July" 

Restoration  of  the  Edicts  of  Pacification 

La  Roche  Chandieu  dies  of  Grief 

The  Parliament  of  Tours  denounces  the  Pope 

It  registers  the  Edict  in  favor  of  the  Protestants 

Retaliatory  Action  of  the  Rebel  Parliament  of  Paris 

Scanty  Justice  done  to  the  Protestants 

Declaration  of  the  Clergy  at  Chartres     . 

Parliament  resents  their  Usurpation 

A  French  Patriarchate  proposed  . 

Henry  takes  Chartres  and  Noyon 

A  Spanish  Force  lands  in  Brittany 

Death  of  La  Noue  and  Chatillon 

Exploits  of  Lesdiguieres         .... 

Battle  of  Pontcharra  (September  19,  1591) 

Murder  of  President  Brisson  by  the  "  Seize  ! 

Their  Unpatriotic  Sentiments    . 

Their  Letter  to  Philip  II.  (November  20,  1591) 

Mayenne  avenges  President  Brisson 

Fall  of  the  "Seize" 

Rouen  besieged  ..... 

Answer  of  the  Rouennais  to  Henry's  Summons 
Litanies  and  Processions    .... 
The  Duke  of  Parma  invades  France 
Henry  wounded  at  Aumale 
Successful  Sortie  from  Rouen 
Lukewarmness  of  Biron  and  others  . 
Parma's  Help  dispensed  with 
He  is  again  begged  to  return 

The  Siege  abandoned 

Masterly  Retreat  of  the  Duke    . 
Disloyalty  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Royalists 
Death  of  Parma 


Puge 
9G5 

200 
200 
207 
208 

968 
909 

270 

271 
271 

274 


27<; 

9TJ 
978 
9T9 

989 

283 

98*3 


9M 
908 


CHAPTER    XIII. 
1592-1593. 


The  Abjuration 904 

Various  Fortunes  of  War 994 

Successes  near  Sedan 994 

Losses  in  Anjou  and  Maine 986 

Bayonne    


CONTENTS. 


X1U 


Defeat  and  Death  of  Antoine  Scipion  de  Joyeuse 

Gains  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy 

Achievements  of  Lesdiguieres  among  the  Alps 

And  in  Piedmont 

Supineness  of  Henry's  Allies         .... 
Queen  Elizabeth's  Capriciousness       .... 
Negotiations  between  Duplessis  Mornay  and  Villeroy 
Mayenne's  Secret  Expectations  .... 

A  Virtual  Dismemberment  of  France    . 
Duplessis  Mornay's  Difficult  Position 

The  Terms  agreed  upon 

The  Huguenot  View  of  the  King's  Instruction 
A  full  and  fair  Discussion     ..... 
The  Negotiation  ends  ..... 

Henry's  Advances  to  Clement  the  Eighth 
The  Pope's  Brief  for  the  Election  of  a  King 
Cardinal  Gondy  and  Marquis  Pisany  sent  to  Italy 
Henry's  Letter  to  Pope  Clement        .         .         . 
Gondy  forbidden  to  enter  the  Papal  States    . 
Henry  tries  to  deceive  Queen  Elizabeth     . 
His  intention  to  remain  a  Protestant    . 
Paris  clamorous  for  Peace  ..... 

Mayenne  and  the  Legate  appeal  to  the  Royalists  . 
Schomberg  and  De  Thou  propose  a  Peace  Conference 
Invitation  of  the  Royalists  «, 

Henry  answers  Mayenne's  Manifesto 
His  View  of  a  heartless  Conversion 
Embarrassment  of  the  League  ..... 
Dispute  of  Mayenne  and  Feria      .... 
Mayenne's  Terms  with  Spain     ..... 
The  Conference  agreed  upon         .... 
States  General  of  the  League      ..... 
The  Decrees  of  Trent  under  Discussion 
The  Bishop  of  Senlis  on  Spanish  Ambition 
President  Le  Maistre's  manly  Protest    . 

Conference  of  Suresnes 

Henry  intimates  his  approaching  Conversion 
The  first  Discussion  .'.... 

Henry  invites  the  Bishops  to  Mantes     . 
Opposition  of  the  League  . 

Remonstrances  of  the  Huguenots 

Henry's  Assurances 

Letters  of  Beza  and  Jean  de  l'Espine     . 
Appeal  of  Gabriel  d'Amours       ..... 
The  "  Ministres  Courtisans  "  .... 

Rosny  encourages  Henry  to  abjure     .... 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

Page 

Agrippa  d'Aubigne •  340 

Duplessis  Mornay 341 

The  King's  Attitude 342 

Henry  entreats  Duplessis  Mornay  to  come          .....  340 

The  Protestants  not  to  be  invited  to  the  "  Instruction  "        .         .         .  347 

Catharine  of  Bourbon         .........  348 

Henry's  "Instruction"  (July  23,  1593) 349 

The  Abjuration  (July  25,  1593) 353 

Public  Opinion  respecting  the  Act         .......  355 

Letter  of  Queen  Elizabeth 366 


CHAPTER     XIV. 
1593-1598. 

The  Edict  of  Nantes 360 

Change  in  the  Character  of  the  History         ......  359 

Henry  still  claims  to  be  a  Huguenot 360 

His  occasional  Anxiety  of  Mind     .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  361 

Continued  Virulence  of  the  Clergy    .  .....  302 

Pope  Clement  intractable      .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  300 

Mission  of  Nevers  to  Rome 363 

Efforts  of  D'Ossat  and  Du  Perron 305 

Ceremony  of  the  King's  Absolution 307 

Conspiracies  against  Henry's  Life 307 

Pierre  Barriere  .         .         .         .         .         .         .          .         .          *  307 

Jean  Chastel  ...........  :'»,;v 

Expulsion  of  the  Jesuits    .         .         .         .          .         .          .         .         .  308 

Henry's  Successes 800 

He  is  anointed  at  Chartres  (February  27,  1594)  ....  300 

Entry  into  Paris  (March  22,  1594) 370 

Submission  of  Cities  and  Leaders       .  .         .         .         .         .         .  372 

The  Huguenots  excluded  from  many  Places  ..... 

No  Provisions  favorable  to  them         .......  374 

They  are  not  dismayed  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .876 

The  Possibility  of  Persecution 370 

Duplessis  Mornay  expostulates      ....... 

Henry  tries  to  justify  his  Abjuration 37H 

Huguenot  Deputies  at  Mantes  (October,  1593-January,  1594)        .  379 

Unsatisfactory  Negotiations       ........  380 

Proposed  Ordinance  of  Mantes 381 

The  King's  Coronation  Oath ;'>v~ 

"  Union  of  Mantes  " 388 

Protracted  Struggle  for  Protestant  Rights 384 


CONTENTS.  XV 

Page 

Dangers  from  weak  Brethren 385 

Political  Assembly  of  Sainte  Foy  (July,  1594) 386 

Grievances 386 

Political  Organization  of  the  Huguenots 388 

Assembly  of  Saumur  (February,  1595) 390 

Assembly  of  Loudun  (April,  1596) 391 

War  declared  against  Spain  (January  17,  1595) 391 

The  Duke  of  Mercosur  in  Brittany 391 

Massacre  near  La  Chataigneraie 393 

The  Truce  to  be  revived 394 

Attitude  of  the  Huguenots •  395 

Views  of  Duplessis  Mornay         ........  396 

Of  Odet  de  la  None 396 

Concession  of  the  King 398 

The  Assembly  removes  to  Vendome,  afterward  to  Saumur   .         .         .  400 

Fallot  Amiens  (March  11,  1597) 400 

What  ought  the  Huguenots  to  do  ?         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  401 

The  Assembly's  Answer  to  the  King           ......  402 

Schomberg  and  De  Thou 405 

Difficulties  in  the  Way  of  the  Edict 405 

The  Assembly  at  Chatellerault  (June,  1597) 407 

Huguenot  Support  in  Arms 410 

Amiens  retaken  (September,  1597) 412 

Honor  due  to  the  Huguenot  Assembly 413 

The  Edict  of  Nantes  signed  (April  13,  1598) 414 

Liberty  of  Conscience         .........  416 

Education  and  Charity  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .417 

Cemeteries 418 

Courts  of  Justice •  418 

Support  of  Protestant  Ministers          .......  419 

Of  Garrisons  of  Cities  of  Refuge 419 

An  Epoch  in  Modern  Civilization 420 

The  Peace  of  Vervins,  with  Spain  (May,  1598) 421 

The  Edict  not  extorted  by  Force *422 

Opposition  of  the  Clergy  and  the  University 423 

Henry's  Address  to  the  Clergy 424 

Modifications  made  in  some  Points         .......  425 

Henry's  determined  Speech  to  Parliament         .....  425 

The  Edict  registered  (February  25,  1599) 428 

It  is  welcomed  by  all  reasonable  Men 429 

The  Edict  a  Fundamental  Law  of  the  Kingdom 429 

Displeasure  of  Pope  Clement  the  Eighth 431 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XV. 

1598-1610. 

Page 

After  the  Edict 434 

A  Period  of  comparative  Quiet      ........  434 

Dilatoriness  of  the  Parliaments 435 

The  Parliament  of  Bordeaux 435 

Henry's  Address  to  the  Judges 430 

Henry  and  the  Parliament  of  Toulouse          ......  438 

The  Parliament  of  Rouen 439 

Persistence  of  the  Huguenots 439 

Hopeful  Condition  of  the  Churches 440 

Seditious  Songs  proscribed.      "  La  vache  a  Colas  "        ....  441 

Castelmoron  a  Model  of  Charity 442 

Sir  Edwin  Sandys'  View 442 

Protestant  Statistics 445 

Political  Assemblies 446 

Assembly  of  Saumur  (1600) 447 

Of  Sainte  Foy  (October,  1601) 448 

The  Deputies  General 449 

Assembly  of  Chatellerault  (July,  1606) 450 

Synod  of  La  Rochelle  (1607) 451 

Assembly  of  Jargeaux  (1608) 453 

Papal  and  Jesuit  Influence         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         •  465 

The  King's  Divorce  and  Marriage  .         .         .         .          .  .  .48$ 

Duplessis  Mornay's  Book  on  the  Eucharist 457 

Henry's  Annoyance       ..........  457 

The  Bishop  of  Evreux's  Charge 4V.i 

Duplessis  and  the  King          .........  460 

The  sixty  "Errors" 461 

The  Fontainebleau  Conference  (May  4,  1600) 462 

The  Commissioners   .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  ^,i'~ 

Pliancy  of  Judges          ..........  463 

Chancellor  Bellievre           .........  464 

The  Conference  opened        .........  166 

It  is  interrupted        ..........  466 

Henry's  Elation 466 

Catharine  of  Bourbon         .........  468 

Henry's  Kindness  to  the  Genevese         .......  469 

Fort  Sainte  Catherine  demolished 469 

Rumored  Conversion  of  Theodore  Beza         ......  470 

Fran£ois  de  Sales  attempts  to  bribe  him 471 

How  Chablais  was  ' '  converted  " 472 

Marshal  Biron's  Conspiracy 478 

The  Jesuit  at  the  Gates  of  La  Rochelle  .         .         .         .         .         .474 


CONTENTS.  XVl'i 

Page 

Protestant  Education 474 

The  State  Universities 476 

The  eight  Protestant  Academies,  or  Universities       ....  477 

Erection  of  spacious  Huguenot  Temples 479 

Dieppe 480 

Ablon 481 

Charenton 482 

Writing  on  the  Posts  and  the  Gates         .......  484 

Some  Huguenot  Inscriptions 485 

Assassination  of  Henry  the  Fourth  (May  14,  1610)         ....  486 

Mystery  of  Ravaillac's  Crime 493 

Gondy's  Certificate  of  the  Innocence  of  the  Jesuits       ....  494 

MAP. 

Northern  France  at  the  Accession  op  Henry  the  Third.     1574. 

At  end  of  volume.. 


BOOK  SECOND 


FROM  THE  BATTLE  OF  COUTRAS  (1587)  TO  THE  DEATH 
OF  HENRY  THE  FOURTH  (1610). 


BOOK  SECOND. 


FKOM  THE  BATTLE  OF  COUTEAS  (1587)  TO  THE  DEATH 
OF  HENEY  THE  FOUETH  (1610). 


CHAPTEE  YIIL 

THE   BARRICADES,   AND  THE  EDICT  OF   UNION. 

"  Saul  hatb  slain  his  thousands,  and  David  his  ten  thou- 
sands." Such  was  the  cry  of  the  League.  Its  partisans,  the 
Guise  gains  clergy>  tne  Pa^  emissaries  of  the  King  of  Spain,  all 
rSutingdthef  were  loud  in  their  praise  of  the  wonderful  courage 
Germans.  an(j  ado|regS  of  the  Duke  of  Guise,  each  man  striving 
to  outdo  his  neighbor  in  magnifying  the  number  of  German 
reiters  and  French  Huguenots  whom  the  favorite  son  of  the 
Church  had  left  killed  or  wounded  on  the  scene  of  his  engage- 
ments with  the  enemy.  The  king  himself  came  in  for  scanty 
commendation  or  for  positive  censure,  while  the  Duke  of  Eper- 
non,  his  favorite,  was  all  but  overwhelmed  with  curses  for  in- 
terposing his  army  between  the  retreating  foreigners  and  the 
avenging  troops  of  Guise.  Solemn  Te  Deums  were  indeed 
sung,  by  royal  command,  first,  when  the  intimation  was  given 
that  the  Swiss  mercenaries  of  the  heretics,  who  had  come 
supposing  that  they  were  to  liberate  the  King  of  France,  had 
been  undeceived  and  had  agreed  to  return  home ;  and,  again, 
when  it  was  understood  that  the  last  of  the  reiters  had  passed 


4       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  VIII. 

the  frontiers.  Henry  himself,  when  he  returned  to  the  capital, 
two  days  before  Christmas,  was  received  by  the  people  with 
great  demonstrations  of  joy.  Loud  cries  of  "  Yive  le  Roi  !  w 
and  "  Noel !  "  to  which  he  had  long  been  a  stranger,  greeted 
him  on  all  sides,  as  he  rode,  all  booted  and  spurred,  to  the 
great  church  of  Notre  Dame,  to  render  thanks  to  Almighty  God. 
On  the  morrow  the  judges  of  parliament  and  the  other  judi- 
cial and  municipal  officers  flocked  to  the  palace  to  have  the 
honor  of  kissing  his  hand.1  Bonfires  were  lighted,  and  other 
demonstrations  were  ordered  in  the  public  squares,  but  the 
populace  was  at  heart  irresponsive  to  these  suggestions  of  joy. 
Men  murmured  at  the  street  corners  against  the  compact  made 
with  the  Germans.  The  queen  mother  herself  encouraged  the 
discontent,  manifesting  little  gladness  at  her  son's  return,  and 
telling  everybody  that,  had  he  not  interfered,  the  Duke  of 
Guise  would  have  routed  the  foreign  army.2  The  preachers 
loudly  maintained  from  the  pulpit  that,  but  for  Guise,  the  ark 
of  the  Lord  would  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Philistines. 
The  theologians  of  the  Sorbonne  even  went  farther,  and,  in  a 
session  not  so  secretly  held  but  that  the  king  got  wind  of  it, 
took  occasion  to  declare  the  opinion  that  unfaithful  or  incom- 
petent princes  might  be  deprived  of  their  government,  just  as 
suspected  guardians  could  be  removed  from  their  positions  of 
trust.3 


1  Lettres  d'Etienne  Pasquier  (Edit.  Feugere),  ii.  303:  "Le  Roy  y  est  arrive 
fort  applaudy  du  menu  peuple,  disant  tout  hault  que  les  ligueurs  ne  faisoient 
que  menacer,  mais  que  le  Roy  avoit  chasse  les  estrangers."  Letter  of  Henry 
of  Navarre,  ubi  infra. 

2  "  La  Royue-mere  n'a  monstre  joye  de  son  arrivee ;  ains  dit  partout  que, 
sans  le  Roy,  monsieur  de  Guyse  les  eust  desfaicts."  Henry  of  Navarre  to  the 
Duchess  of  Grammont,  January  12,  1588,  Lettres  missives   ii.  331. 

3  "  Et  la  dessus,  la  Sorbonne — c'est-a-dire  trente  ou  quarante  pedants  et 
maistres  es  ars  crottes,  qui  apres  graces  traictent  des  sceptres  et  des  couronnes 
— firent  unresultat  secret,  et  nontoutefois  si  secret  qu'on  soit  adverti  et  le  Roy 
des  premiers,  qu'on  pouvoitoster  le  gouvernement  aux  princes  qu'on  ne  trouvoit 
pas  tels  qu'il  faloit,  comme  1' administration  au  tuteur  qu'on  avoit  pour  suspect. 
Ce  sont  les  propres  termes  de  l'arreste  de  la  Sorbonne,  fait  en  leur  college,  le 
mercredi  16  du  present  mois  [Decembre]  et  an  1587."  Lestoile,  i.  233,  834 
It  will  be  seen  that,  in  the  course  of  events,  the  Roman  Catholic  theologians 
of  Paris  had  come  to  adopt  views,  respecting  the  right  of  the  people  to  depose 


1587.  THE   BARRICADES.  5 

The  most  keen  and  dispassionate  of  observers  were  not  slow, 
indeed,  in  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  the  capital  had  had  a 
Franoisde  nai'row  escape  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  in- 
chatmon.  vading  force,  agreeing,  however,  that  its  deliverance 
was  due,  not  to  the  generalship  of  Guise,  but  to  the  incredible 
folly  of  the  German  leaders.  They  recognized  the  fact  that  in 
the  army  of  the  reiters  there  was  but  one  commander  with 
mind  so  clear  and  will  so  firm  and  tenacious  of  its  purpose, 
that,  had  his  counsels  been  followed,  victory  must  have  perched 
on  the  standards  of  the  Huguenots.  That  commander  was 
Coligny's  son.  "  If  Chatillon  had  been  obeyed,"  wrote  the 
Tuscan  ambassador,  "  we  should  to-day  have  been  mourning 
where  we  are  triumphant."  And  grave  Etienne  Pasquier 
echoed  the  same  sentiment.  "  To  tell  the  truth,  had  the  reiters 
followed  his  advice  and  taken  the  road  he  pointed  out  to  them,  our 
affairs  would  not  have  turned  out  so  well  as  they  have  done.  "  x 

Meanwhile  never  had  the  king  manifested  more  distinctly 
the  inherent  weakness  of  his  character  than  he  did  at  the  pres- 
ent critical  "juncture.     The  machinations  of  the  League 

The  king  ,    .       ,   .  .      ,    .      , .  .  ,  ,  ,   . 

fearstopun-    produced  in  his  mind  indignation  and  excited  a  thirst 

ish  the  Redi- 

tious  preach-    for  revenge  which  could  never  be  slaked  save  by  the 
blood  of  his  enemies,  yet  they  evoked  no  prompt  and 
vigorous  action  on  his  part.     He  could  storm  and  utter  impre- 
cations and  dire  threats,  but  he  was  afraid  to  take  the  risk  of 

vicious  or  incompetent  kings,  not  very  dissimilar  to  those  which  the  Protestant 
Francis  Hotman  had  propounded,  a  few  years  before,  in  his  "  Franco  Gallia." 
The  anti-monarchical  tendencies  of  the  League  and  its  adherents  have  been 
treated  at  length  by  Labitte,  De  la  democratic  chez  les  predicateurs  de  la  Ligue 
(Paris,  1841).  Bayle,  in  his  Dictionary,  long  since  defended  Hotman  against 
the  reproach  of  having  furnished  weapons  for  the  enemy  to  turn  against  him- 
self, and  especially  to  the  famous  Louis  d'Orleans,  in  his  "  Advertissement 
des  Catholiques  Anglois."  "  As  long  as  the  world  will  be  a  world,"  playfully 
observes  Bayle,  "  there  will  be  everywhere  ambulatory  doctrines,  dependent 
on  times  and  places;  true  transitory  birds,  which  are  in  one  country  in  the 
summer,  and  in  another  in  the  winter ;  wandering  lights  that,  like  the  Car- 
tesian comets,  illuminate  successively  several  vortices.  Whoever  pretends  to 
set  up  for  a  censor  upon  this  occasion,  will  be  looked  on  as  a  morose  critic, 
and  a  native  of  Plato's  commonwealth." 

1  Letter  of  Cavriana,  January  4,  1588,  Negociations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv. 
742  ;  Lettres  d'Etienne  Pasquier  (Edit.  Feugere),  ii.  303. 


b       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  VIII. 

putting  these  threats  into  execution.  Where  the  anger  of  his 
grandfather,  the  first  Francis,  would  scarcely  have  been  satis- 
fied without  the  decapitation  of  half-a-dozen  of  the  most  ob- 
noxious of  the  theologians,  the  spite  of  Henry  went  no  farther 
than  to  induce  him  to  summon  Parliament  and  Sorbonne  to  the 
Palace  of  the  Louvre,  to  listen  to  a  severe  reprimand.  But 
neither  for  Parliament  and  Sorbonne,  nor  for  seditious  preach- 
ers like  insolent  Boucher,  curate  of  Saint  Benoit,  the  recipient 
of  the  monarch's  most  terrible  menaces,  was  punishment  in 
store.  In  point  of  fact,  Boucher  and  his  fellows  were  rather 
the  gainers  by  reason  of  the  display  of  the  king's  impotent 
fury ;  inasmuch  as  they  obtained  thereby  a  cheap  notoriety, 
and  were  held  by  the  people  to  be  confessors,  if  not  martyr.-. 
in  the  cause  of  God,  the  Holy  Virgin,  and  all  the  Saints.  So, 
too,  when  the  Duchess  of  Montpensier  was  reported  to  have  re- 
peated the  threat  of  the  wife  of  Marshal  Betz,  and  remarked 
"  that  she  carried  in  her  belt  the  pair  of  scissors  that  would 
give  the  third  crown  to  friar  Henry  of  Valois,"  the  king  merely 
ordered  her  to  leave  Paris  for  this  piece  of  impudence  and  for 
her  continual  intrigues  with  the  preachers,  instead  of  consign- 
ing her  forthwith  to  a  dungeon  in  the  Bastile  or  the  Castle  of 
Yincennes.  Indeed,  Henry  had  not  given  up  the  hope  that  he 
might  yet  checkmate  Guise  by  supplanting  him  and  making 
himself  head  of  the  party  now  so  devotedly  attached  to  the 
Lorraine  princes.  His  eyes  were  not  opened  even  by  rumors 
that  Guise  had  recently  gone  in  disguise  to  Home,  where  he 
remained  three  days,  and  that  the  pope  had  sent  to  the  young 
chief  of  the  League  a  sword  blessed  by  himself,  thus  constitut- 
ing him  the  champion  of  the  Church.1 

It  would  seem  to  have  been  for  the  purpose  of  proving  his 

unimpeachable    catholicity,  as    well    as  attesting  his  dialectic 

skill,  that  Ilenrv  of  Yalois  about  this  time  determined 

He  attempts  .  ' ,  , ,  .  . 

to  convert      to  trv  his  hand  at  the  conversion  of  heretics.      I  wo 

heretics  v 

young  women,  daughters  of  one  Jacques  Foucaud, 
lately  a  procureur  in  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  had  been  thrown 
into  prison  on  the  simple  charge  of  being  obstinate  and   heady 

1  See  Lestoile,  i.  235,  236,  244. 


1588.  THE   BARRICADES.  7 

Huguenots.  The  younger  was  unmarried,  the  elder  was  the 
widow  of  one  Jean  Sureau,  of  Montargis,  and  the  mother  of 
three  small  children.  One  day,  at  the  end  of  January,  the  king 
mustered  up  sufficient  resolution  to  forego  his  ignoble  pastimes 
and  visit  the  Chatelet,  where  the  two  Huguenots  were  confined. 
TheFoucaud  ^Vhen  brought  into  his  presence  the  women  main- 
sisters,  tained  their  reputation  for  attachment  to  their  creed, 
and  for  clear  understanding  of  its  articles.  Though  he  talked 
long,  Henry  made  no  progress.  To  say  the  truth,  his  discourse 
amounted  to  little  more  than  promises  that  if  they  would  but 
consent  to  return  to  mass,  they  should  instantly  be  set  at  liberty. 
When  they  excused  themselves,  on  the  ground  of  conscience, 
the  king  could  endure  it  no  longer,  but  exclaimed  :  "  I  see  very 
well  how  the  case  stands :  you  are  obstinate  women  who  will 
be  converted  only  by  means  of  fire."  The  two  priests,  whom 
Henry  had  prudently  brought  with  him,  next  plied  the  girls  for 
a  full  hour  with  their  arguments,  but  succeeded  no  better.  The 
Huguenot  prisoners  knew  the  Holy  Scriptures  well,  and  could 
instantly  answer  the  theologians  by  the  apt  quotation  of  particu- 
lar passages.1 

A  more  distinguished  victim  of  religious  intolerance  was  at 
the  same  time  languishing  behind  the  thick  walls  of  the  Bastile, 
paiissy,  the  an(^  him,  too>  *ne  king  thought  fit  to  honor  with  a  visit, 
potter.  ^hjg  was  no  0ther  than  Bernard  Paiissy,  the  Potter, 

now  a  man  about  seventy-eight  years  of  age.  Of  humble  and 
obscure  parentage,  he  had,  nearly  fifty  years  before  the  time  of 
which  I  am  now  treating,  begun,  in  the  city  of  Saintes,  a  se- 
ries of  remarkable  experiments  with  the  view  of  discovering  a 
method  of  producing  an  enamel  that  would  make  of  the  rough 
pottery,  with  which  alone  he  was  acquainted,  a  proper  material 
for  the  realization  of  his  artistic  thought.  Undaunted  by  pov- 
erty and  by  frequent  disappointments,  the  patient  worker  at 
last  succeeded  in  his  search.  After  fifteen  years,  during  which 
he  was  treated  by  the  educated  as  a  visionary,  and  looked  upon 
with  suspicion  by  the  ignorant  as  a  cheat,  and  possibly  a  dealer 
in  magical  arts,  Paiissy  found  the  way  to  fame  and  competence 

1  Ibid.,i.  244,  245. 


8        THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  VIII. 

opening  before  him.  Anne  de  Montmorency  became  his  patron, 
and  Catharine  de'  Medici,  enchanted  by  the  elegance  of  his  de- 
signs, conferred  upon  him  the  singular  title  of  "  inventeur  des 
rustiques  h'gulines  du  roi,"  and  employed  him  in  decorating  the 
gardens  of  the  new  palace  of  the  Tuileries.  Meantime,  Palissy 
had  in  Saintes  received  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  at  the 
hands  of  some  obscure  monks  who  suffered  martyrdom  in  the 
last  days  of  the  reign  of  Francis  the  First.  The  lowly  potter 
was  no  trimmer  in  matters  of  religion,  but  used  voice  as  well  as 
pen  in  the  dissemination  of  his  new  faith.  Twice  had  he  conse- 
quently been  in  peril  of  his  life.  Imprisoned  as  a  heretic  during 
the  first  civil  war,  he  obtained  his  release  through  the  intercession 
of  the  constable  with  the  queen  mother.  Ten  years  later,  Cath- 
arine herself  interposed  to  save  him  from  death  in  the  massacre 
of  Saint  Bartholomew's  Day.  Now,  for  a  third  time,  the  artisan 
whom  his  contemporaries  knew  only  as  a  worker  in  clay,  but 
whom  posterity  has  come  to  recognize  as  a  marvellous  thinker 
and  a  master  of  the  French  language  excelled  bv  few 

Henry  visits  _    .   .  -i        •   i        1         i  -r-» 

him  in  the  ot  Ins  age,  was  menaced  with  death  as  a  1  rotestant. 
Henry  condescended  to  visit  him,  and  endeavor  to 
persuade  him  to  prolong  a  life,  so  useful  to  his  royal  master, 
by  abjuring  the  religion  of  Calvin  and  Beza. 

"My  good  fellow,"  said  he,  "for  forty -five  years  you  have 
been  in  the  service  of  the  queen  my  mother  and  in  mine,  and 
we  have  endured  your  living  in  your  religion  through  fires  and 
massacres.  But  now  I  am  so  hard  pressed  by  the  Guises  and 
my  people,  that  I  have  been  compelled,  despite  my  own  wishes, 
to  throw  you  and  these  two  poor  women  into  prison.  They  will 
be  burned,  and  you  also,  if  you  do  not  suffer  yourself  to  be  con- 
verted." 

To  which  the  intrepid  potter  replied : 

"  Sire,  Count  Maulevrier  came  yesterda}T,  and,  in  your  name. 
promised  the  two  sisters  their  lives  on  the  most  degrading  con- 
dition.1 They  answered  that  they  would  be  martyrs  for  their 
own  honor  as  well  as  for  the  honor  of  God.  You  have  told  me 
several  times  that  you  pitied  me,  but  it  is  I  that  pity  you,  who 

1  "Si  elles  vouloient  vous  donner  chaeune  une  nuit." 


15SS.  THE   BARRICADES.  9 

have  uttered  these  words :  '  I  am  compelled.'  That  was  not 
speaking  as  a  king.  These  girls  and  I,  who  have  a  portion  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  will  teach  you  this  royal  speech,  that 
neither  the  Guisards,  nor  all  your  people,  nor  you  yourself  can 
ever  constrain  a  potter  to  bow  the  knee  before  images."  J 

Unfortunately,  though  Henry  did  not  carry  out  his  threat  to 
bring  his  Huguenot  captives  at  once  to  the  stake,  he  lacked  the 
magnanimity  to  release  them.  Palissy  was  left  to  languish  and 
die  in  the  Bastile,  of  old  age  and  hard  usage ;  while  the  two 
Huguenot  women,  after  exchanging  the  royal  custody  for  the 
tender  mercies  of  the  League,  were  brought  out,  four  or  five 

months  later,  to  suffer  death  on  the  Place  de  Greve. 
theFoucaud    On  the  twenty-eighth  of  June,  1588,  the  bloodthirsty 

mob  of  Paris  again  beheld  a  grateful  sight  to  which 
it  had  for  some  time  been  a  stranger.  By  sentence  of  the  pro- 
vost, confirmed  by  decree  of  parliament,  the  sisters  were  to  be 
hung  upon  the  gallows  until  dead,  and  their  bodies  to  be  con- 
signed to  the  flames.  They  endured  the  ignominious  punish- 
ment with  exemplary  constancy,  refusing  to  recant,  and  testify- 
ing their  faith  until  the  gag,  cruelly  inserted  in  their  mouths, 
prevented  them  from  uttering  words  that  might  touch  the  hearts 
or  convince  the  minds  of  those  present.  The  sight  of  so  much 
innocence  and  fortitude  might  have  melted  a  savage  to  com- 
passion ;  it  only  kindled  the  Parisian  mob  to  fury.     It  was  in- 

1  The  fearless  speech  of  Palissy  rests  upon  the  authority  of  Agrippa  d'Au- 
bigne,  who  tells  the  story  in  his  Histoire  universelle,  iii.  216  (book  3,  chap.  1), 
and  more  fully  in  his  Confession  catholique  de  Sancy  (reprinted  in  the  Mc- 
moires  de  Henry  III.),  book  2,  chap.  7,  "  De  l'impudence  des  Huguenots," 
p.  422.  Despite  the  attempt  of  M.  Louis  Audiat,  in  his  inordinately  long 
communications  to  the  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de  Thist.  du  Prot  fran^ais,  for 
December,  1868,  and  January,  1869,  I  cannot  but  regard  the  speech  as  authen- 
tic, although  not  improbably  somewhat  affected  in  its  form  by  the  epigram- 
matic style  of  the  narrator.  D'Aubigne,  it  may  be  remarked,  calls  the  girls 
Sureau,  after  the  name  of  the  husband  of  Radegonde,  instead  of  Foucaud  or 
Foucault,  as  they  are  designated  by  Lestoile  and  La  Fosse.  The  illustrious 
Pierre  du  Moulin,  in  his  autobiography,  tells  us  that  he  arrived  in  Paris  as  a 
lad  of  twenty,  shortly  before  the  martyrdom,  to  which  he  refers  in  these 
words:  "Monsieur  de  Guise,  qui  dominoit  a  Paris,  fit  pendre  deux  filles, 
qu'on  nommoit  les  Suraut,  qui  estoient  soeurs,  pour  la  religion."  Bulletin  de 
la  Societe  de  1  hist,  du  Prot.  francais,  vii.  (1858)  177. 


10       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  VIIL 

sufferable  that  Huguenots  should  be  permitted  to  die  so  pain- 
less a  death,  defying,  as  it  were,  the  impotent  justice  of  the 
law.  The  younger  of  the  two  women  had,  indeed,  speedily 
passed  beyond  the  reach  of  human  malice  ;  the  noose  had  done 
its  office  well.  The  elder  still  lingered  in  the  throes  of  death. 
Xot  a  moment  was  to  be  lost.  The  rabble  rushed  forward  ;  the 
rope  was  cut,  and  the  quivering  form  of  the  unfortunate  woman 
was  rescued  from  hanging,  only  to  be  thrown  yet  alive  upon 
the  fire  prepared  to  receive  her  corpse.1 

Meanwhile,  if  Henry  of  Valois  had  but  poor  success  in  the 

new  part  he  undertook  to  act  as  a  "  converter  of  heretics,''  he 

showed  himself  as  much  of  an  adept  as  ever  in  his 

Royal  revels.  i  o      •     • 

old  character  or  master  or  the  revels.  Striving  to 
drown  the  thought  of  the  existence  of  League  and  Huguenot, 
of  the  discontent  of  men  persecuted  for  their  religion,  of  the 
murmuring  of  provinces  borne  down  by  the  intolerable  weight 
of  excessive  taxation,  and  of  the  ambitious  designs  of  leaders 
determined  never  to  lay  aside  their  arms,  he  plunged  from  time  to 
time,  with  all  his  old  zest,  in  frivolous  amusements  and  prodigal 
expenditures.  In  February,  at  the  solicitation  of  some  ladies  of 
his  court,  he  gave  orders  to  have  the  fair  of  Saint  Germain  pro- 
longed for  six  days  beyond  its  usual  term,  and  diverted  himself 
and  his  minions  by  allowing  them  to  indulge  in  coarse  and  in- 
sulting conduct  toward  the  women  in  attendance,  both  young 
and  old.2  The  Emperor  Xero  was  not,  in  outward  appearance 
at  least,  more  unconcerned  while  Rome  was  burning,  than  the 
last  Yalois  king  sometimes  seemed  to  be  at  a  period  when  the 
Haines  of  civil  commotion  had  almost  reached  the  throne  it 

Not  so  was  it  with  the  Duke  of  Guise  and  his  cohort  of  con- 
spirators against  king  and  country.  Their  cause  had  made 
good  progress  these  past  months,  and  they  were  resolved  that 
it  should  not  now  meet  with  any  reverse.     Peace  could  not  for 

1  Lestoile,  i.  258  ;  Jelian  de  la  Fosse,  219  ;  Haag,  France  protestante.  s.  v. 
Foucault,  v.  155.  The  "  cure  ligueur,"  who  correctly  places  the  execution 
"durant  le  temps  que  Ton  parlementoit,"  is  also  careful  to  note  that  the 
sisters  were  put  to  death  "  for  simply  heresy,  without  being  accused  of  auy 
other  crime." 

*  Lestoile,  i.  245. 


15S8.  THE   BARRICADES.  11 

a  moment  be  dreamed  of ;  and,  fortunately  for  them,  the  cloak 
of  religion  was  conveniently  near  at  hand.  The  garment  was 
too  ragged  from  hard  usage  and  too  flimsy  in  its  original  text- 
ure altogether  to  conceal  their  criminal  designs,  but  it  still 
hung  together  sufficiently  well  to  hide  from  the  eyes  of  the  un- 
discriminating  masses  of  the  people  the  hideous  nakedness  of 
projects  needing  only  to  be  fully  seen  to  be  hated  and  loathed. 
It  was  deemed  a  propitious  time  for  a  fresh  proclamation.  As 
™    T  the  fruit  of  a  conference  between  the  heads  of  the 

The  League 

theTrScTe"  League,  held  in  the  city  of  Nancy,  late  in  January  and 
of  Nancy.  [n  ^\ie  ear]y  part  0£  the  ensuing  month,  some  "Arti- 
cles "  were  given  to  the  world,  containing  the  demands  to  be 
made  of  the  king.  Henry  must  more  openly  join  the  League 
and  remove  from  about  him  such  objectionable  officers  of  state 
as  shall  be  pointed  out  to  him.  He  must  establish  the  decrees 
of  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  set  on  foot  the  Holy  Inquisition, 
at  least  in  the  chief  cities.  He  must  permit  the  ecclesiastics  to 
redeem  their  alienated  property,  put  new  places  in  the  hands  of 
the  League,  furnish  pay  for  troops  to  be  maintained  in  Lor- 
raine and  thereabouts  with  the  view  of  preventing  the  entrance 
of  a  new  army  from  Germany.  In  order  to  do  all  this,  and 
to  continue  the  war  already  begun,  the  goods  of  all  heretics 
and  their  associates  must  be  sold  at  the  earliest  moment,  while 
all  persons  reputed,  since  the  year  1560,  to  have  been  guilty  of 
heresy  must  be  required  to  pay  yearly,  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  war,  one-third,  or  at  the  least  one-fourth,  of  their  incomes. 
A  final  demand  respected  the  amenities  of  the  war  itself.  "  The 
life  of  no  prisoner  shall  be  spared,"  it  is  truculently  provided, 
"  save  upon  his  giving  valid  assurance  that  he  will  be  a  good 
Catholic,  and  paying  the  full  value  of  his  possessions,  if  these 
have  not  already  been  sold.  In  case  they  have  been  sold,  he 
shall  renounce  all  rights  he  might  claim  in  them,  and  serve  for 
three  years  or  more  in  whatever  capacity  it  may  be  desired  to 
employ  him."  ! 


1  The  articles  of  Nancy  have  heen  frequently  printed.  See  Memoires  de  la 
Ligue,  ii.  293;  Memoires  de  Nevers,  i.  723;  Agrippa  d  Aubigne,  iii.  68;  Re- 
cueil  des  choses  memorables,  657  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  (book  90)  172,  etc. 


12  THE  HUGUENOTS   AND  HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.       Ch.  VIII. 

The  manifesto  undoubtedly  had  its  serious  purpose,  and  that 
purpose  it  might  possibly  accomplish  ;  but  some  provision- 
were  sufficiently  absurd,  as  pamphleteers  in  the  Huguenot  in- 
terest were  not  slow  to  perceive.  The  memory  of  Coutras  was 
yet  fresh  in  men's  minds,  and  it  could  be  shown  to  be  quite  as 
probable  that  Roman  Catholic  prisoners  might  soon  be  plead- 
ing for  clemency  from  Protestant  captors,  as  that  Protestants 
would  have  occasion  to  beg  for  their  lives  at  the  hands  of 
Roman  Catholics.  As  to  the  sale  of  the  property  of  the  Hu- 
guenots and  their  allies,  the  articles  revealed  a  simplicity  on  the 
part  of  their  authors  which  was  well-nigh  touching.  What 
bidder  would  be  sufficiently  bold  to  offer  to  purchase  the  lands 
of  so  powerful  a  noble  as  the  Duke  of  Montmorency  ?  "Where 
would  the  unlucky  officer  of  the  law  be  found  who  would  ven- 
ture to  undertake  the  execution  of  the  mandate  of  confiscation 
upon  the  possessions  of  the  Huguenots  of  Languedoc  and  Dauph- 
iny  and  Guyenne,  men  who  hitherto  had  set  at  defiance  not 
sergeants  and  ushers,  but  forces  of  armed  men  \  ' 

Peace  was  quite  out  of  the  question,  whether  Henry  of  Valois 
should  comply  or  refuse  to  comply  with  the  League's  demands. 
The zeai  of  Mendoza  was  well  satisfied  with  his  work,  and  wrote 
Spanish6"  ^rom  -Paris  to  his  master  in  the  Escorial,  that  it  was 
ambassador.  cjear  fa^  Mucins  (Guise)  and  his  friends  were  fully 
resolved  to  oppose  the  conclusion  of  a  general  peace,  and  equally 
determined  to  prevent  the  King  of  France  from  giving  Philip 
the  Second  the  slightest  uneasiness.  The  Spanish  ambassador 
felt  himself  secure  in  the  saddle,  and  lightly  held  the  reins. 
Guise  and  his  fellows  would  go  just  where  and  just  so  fast  as 
their  master  wished  them  to  go.  "I  have  had  no  need,"  he 
significantly  wrote  to  Philip,  "  of  making  them  feel  the  spur 
any  farther."  2 

Don  Bernardino  must,  indeed,  have  been  very  hard  to  satisfy 


1  See  the  running  commentary,  article  by  article,  written,  with  his  accus- 
tomed vivacity,  by  Duplessis  Mornay,  and  put  forth  ostensibly  by  a  Roman 
Catholic.  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay.  iv.  1GS.  etc.,  and  Memoires  de  la 
Ligue,  ii.  293,  etc. 

2  Mendoza  to  Philip  II.,  February  25,  1588,  De  Croze,  ii.  316. 


1588.  THE  BARRICADES.  13 

had  lie  not  been  pleased  with  Guise's  docility.  The  secret  cor- 
respondence, brought  to  light  first  in  our  times,  which  was 
kept  up  between  the  Spanish  ambassador  and  his  sovereign, 
and  between  the  Spanish  ambassador  and  Guise,  shows  that 
there  was  not  a  step  taken  by  the  French  conspirators  without 
consulting  Mendoza,  and  scarcely  a  step  that  he  had  not  him- 
self dictated.  Thus,  when,  as  was  customary  at  the  close  of 
wars,  the  Duke  of  Epernon  was  about  to  despatch  the  king's 
troops  to  quarters  in  Picardy,  it  was  Mendoza  that  advised 
Guise  to  write  in  all  diligence  to  the  cities  of  that  border  prov- 
ince, instructing  them  to  be  on  their  guard,  and  by  no  means  to 
admit  the  royal  garrisons.1 

Into  the  faithful  ear  of  Philip's  envoy,  whom  he  trusted  more 
than  his  own  brother,  as  he  trusted  Philip  more  than  his  own 
lawful  sovereign,  Guise  poured  unreservedly  the  secrets  which 
he  shrank  from  confiding  even  to  his  ally,  the  Prince  of  Parma. 
The  King  of  France,  more  and  more  alarmed  at  the  progress  of 
the  plots  daily  brought  to  his  notice,  but  reluctant  to  give  him- 
self over  as  a  slave,  bound  hand  and  foot,  by  acceding  to  the 
The  king  la-  terms  dictated  to  him  in  the  Articles  of  Nancy,  made 
towinbackSSly  an  effort  to  win  Guise  back  by  kindness  and  by  prom- 
Gmse.  |geg^     jje  gen£  Bellievre  and  La  Guiche  to  invite  the 

duke  to  give  him  advice  respecting  the  campaign  against  the 
Huguenots  of  Guyenne,  and  to  assure  him  that  if  he  would 
accompany  his  majesty  in  that  direction  he  would  receive  the 
most  flattering  treatment.  He  took  the  same  opportunity  to 
strive  to  induce  the  head  of  the  League  to  arrange  matters  in 
Picardy,  and  to  consent  to  a  reconciliation  with  the  chief  royal 
favorite,  the  Duke  of  fipernon.  But,  for  all  answer,  the  envoys 
of  Henry  received  only  empty  promises  that  he  would  con- 
sult his  confederates,  without  whose  participation  he  could 
conclude  nothing.  Equally  fruitless  was  the  negotiation  to 
break  up  the  treasonable  correspondence  and  intrigue  outside 
of  the  kingdom.     It  only  furnished  occasion  to  Guise  to  write 


1  Compare  Guise's  "  memoire,"  sent  to  Mendoza  with  a  letter  dated  February 
8,  1588,  and  Mendoza's  despatch  to  Philip  II.,  of  February  25,  in  De  Croze, 
Documents,  ii.  314,  317. 


14:      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  VIIL 

effusively  to  Philip's  ambassador  an  epistle  from  which  we  learn 
that  the  author  of  a  war  that  had  brought  bloodshed  untold 
into  France,  and  immeasurable  misery  into  thousands  of  homes, 
could  find  a  parallel  for  his  trials  nowhere  save  in  those  of  the 
Blessed  Redeemer.  "They  furthermore  set  forth,"  said  he, 
"  that  if  I  would  renounce  all  understandings  in  Spain  as  well 
as  at  Rome,  the  king  would  honor  me  with  many  benefits  and 
charges  worthy  of  my  dignity,  with  a  world  of  extraordinary 
offers  throwing  more  light  upon  their  artifices,  which  I  liken 
to  the  temptation  which  the  devil  directed  against  our  Lord 
on  the  mountain.  And  never  shall  I  forsake  the  resolution 
that  I  have  adopted  to  pursue  with  constancy  the  blessedness 
which  it  has  pleased  God  to  conduct  happily  up  to  this  present 
hour ;  being  well  assured  that  I  shall  ever  find  good  angels  to 
bear  me  up  and  to  avert  the  evil  which  my  enemies  would  like 
to  inflict  upon  me."  ' 

Manifestly  no  hope  was  to  be  found  in  this  direction.     In  fact, 
it  can  scarcely  be  supposed  that  Henry  of  Valois  had  ever  been 
very  sanguine  of  success  with  so  perfidious  a  noble,  the  represen- 
tative of  a  family  which  appeared  to  have  renounced 

He  turns  to  .  °  X1  . 

Queen  Eliza-    every  tie  or  duty  and  lovalty  to  its  liege  lord  in  favor 

beth  for  help.  *  .       ■,     ,  -,       ,   "     tV  ^ 

oi  his  rival  beyond  the  Pyrenees.  Contemporane- 
ously with  the  mission  of  Bellievre,  therefore,  or  even  a  little 
before  the  interview  of  that  able  diplomatist  with  Guise,  Henry 
had  himself  held  a  remarkable  conference,  in  an  obscure  part  of 
Paris,  with  the  ambassador  of  the  English  queen. 

To  the  king  in  his  perplexity  but  one  remedy  for  present  and 
prospective  evils  seemed  possible.  Surrounded  by  faithless  ad- 
visers, threatened  by  the  insatiable  ambition  of  the  Guises  with 
Tm™  *.„„      dangers  almost  too  terrible  to  contemplate,  sensible 

Importance  »  r 

HenrnVofNag  tnat  %  flagrant  vices  he  had  irretrievably  forfeited 
varre.  ^he   esteem  and  respect   of  all   good  men,  and  had 

alienated  the  loyalty  of  a  people  until  now  distinguished  for 
devotion  to  the  monarch,  Henry  of  Yalois  turned,  as  a  last 
resort,  to  a  gallant  prince  who,  if  not  free  from  conspicuous 


1  Mucius  (Guise)  to  Mendoza,  March  9,  1588,  in  De  Croze,  Documents,  ii. 
318,  319. 


158S.  THE  BARRICADES.  15 

defects  of  character,  was,  at  least,  frank,  courageous,  and  de- 
cided— a  man  who,  whatever  might  be  said  to  his  disadvantage, 
had  never  been  accused  of  womanish  fears.  Could  the  King 
of  Navarre  but  be  persuaded  to  renounce  his  infatuation  for 
"  the  religion  "  and  forget  that  he  was  son  of  brave  Jeanne 
d'Albret — still  better,  could  he  bring  with  him  in  his  change  of 
faith  his  perverse  cousin,  the  Prince  of  Conde — the  half,  nay, 
the  whole  of  the  troubles  of  the  King  of  France  would  be  over. 
No  objection  could  then  be  urged,  no  rebellion  justified,  because 
of  the  heterodoxy  of  the  prospective  successor  to  the  throne.  The 
present  holder  of  that  somewhat  precarious  possession  would 
then  be  left  in  peace  to  pass  his  remaining  days  in  the  congenial 
society  of  his  minions,  collecting  puppies  or  primers,  according 
to  his  preferences,  revelling  in  filthy  stories  and  still  worse  prac- 
tices, and  leaving  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  state  to  hands 
very  willing  to  be  intrusted  with  them — notably  those  of  the  in- 
defatigable queen  mother.  But  how  to  induce  Henry  of  Navarre 
to  take  the  decided  step — this  was  the  difficult  problem  to  solve. 
Hitherto  every  attempt  had  proved  unavailing — from  the 
time  of  Biron's  mission  in  1577  down  to  that  of  Lenoncourt  in 
1585,  and  that  of  M.  de  Sainte  Colombe  in  this  very  year.  To 
every  appeal  the  same  answer  was  returned  :  "  I  cannot  do  vio- 
lence to  my  conscience.  A  man  does  not  change  his  religion  as 
he  lays  aside  one  coat  or  one  shirt  for  another.  However,  I  am 
ready  to  listen  to  instruction,  and  shall  submit  to  the  decisions 
of  a  council  of  the  church,  national  or  general,  if  lawfully  con- 
vened." Here  was  just  encouragement  enough  offered  to  lead 
to  the  opinion  that  the  King  of  Navarre  might  yet  be  won  over. 
In  fact,  though  the  Huguenots  do  not  seem  to  have  become 
seriously  alarmed,  although  staunch  Protestants  like  Duplessis 
Mornay — men  beyond  the  suspicion  of  complicity  in  dishonest 
intrigues — even  drafted  the  sentences  that  now  strike  us  as 
wonderfully  significant  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  there 
were  not  a  few  persons  of  the  Roman  Catholic  party  upon  whom 
the  repeated  allusions  to  a  possible  "  instruction  "  made  a  pro- 
found impression.1 

1  See  above,  vol.  i.,  chapter  v.,  p.  342. 


16       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  VIII. 

Knowing  no  better  way  of  reaching  the  Bearaais,  Henry  of 
Valois  had  recourse,  at  this  crisis,  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  se- 
cretly begged  the  interposition  of  a  princess  whose  offers  of 
mediation  between  him  and  his  Huguenot  subjects  he  had,  not 
long  since,  openly  and  somewhat  ostentatiously  declined. 

One  winter's  night — it  was  late  in  the  month  of  February — 
Sir  Edward  Stafford,  the  English  ambassador,  received  from 
the  king  a  request  that  he  would  at  once  accompany  the  mes- 
senger and  come  to  see  him  on  matters  of  importance.  So  press- 
ing a  summons  could  not  be  declined.  Accordingly,  conducted 
by  the  unknown  person  who  had  brought  it,  the 
holds  a  secret  English  ambassador,  after  having  been  purposely  led 
with  sir  Ed-  by  a  roundabout  way  through  the  tortuous  streets  of 
'  Paris,  soon  found  himself  in  a  strange  house,  where, 
although  other  voices  were  heard  in  the  distance,  he  met  his 
majesty  alone.  Of  the  interview  Stafford  informed  the  queen 
in  a  despatch  of  the  most  secret  character. 

Henry  began  by  exacting  of  his  guest  the  most  solemn  assur- 
ances that  he  would  divulge  to  no  living  person  save  the  queen 
herself  what  wTas  now  to  be  confided  to  his  keeping.  "I  am 
about  to  deal  plainly  with  you,"  he  said,  "  and  to  lay  my  state 
more  open  to  the  queen  than  ever  I  did  to  any  other  person. 
I  am  well  content,  however,  that  the  queen  should  take  advice 
of  any  of  her  secret  counsellors  whom  it  ma}'  please  her  to  con- 
sult ;  fori  know  that  her  majesty  has  about  her  men  respecting 
whom  she  may  be  sure  that  they  will  do  nothing  beyond  her 
commandment.  I  would  with  all  my  heart  that  I  might  give 
of  my  own  blood  to  have  such  counsellors  myself — men  that 
would  depend  upon  no  one  else  but  upon  my  will.  Then  would 
not  my  affairs  be  trembling  in  the  balance,  as  they  are  at  pres- 
ent." After  this  preamble,  not  wanting  in  pathetic  significance, 
he  informed  Stafford  that  his  last  message  to  Queen  Elizabeth, 
sent  through  Secretary  Pinart,  had  been  such  as  it  was  because 
Catharine  de'  Medici  and  the  whole  council  insisted  that  lie 
should  desire  her  majesty  not  to  meddle  in  the  affairs  of  France. 
And  now  he  disclosed  the  purpose  for  which  the  audience  had 
been  granted.  "I  have  sent  for  you,"  said  the  kinir.  "  in  order 
that  no  one  may  suspect  that  I  want  anything  of  the  queen. 


15SS.  THE  BARRICADES.  17 

and  through  you  to  beseech  her  with  all  my  heart  to  grant  my 
request,  without  making  it  known  to  any  one  that  it  came  from 
me ;  because  the  Huguenots  can  keep  no  secret.  I  beg  her 
majesty  to  persuade  the  King  of  Navarre  to  have  a  care  for  his 
estate  and  to  accommodate  himself  with  me,  in  such  sort  that 
the  League  may  have  no  pretext  left  to  it  for  ruining  France 
and  me." 

Upon  this,  an  animated  discussion  arose.  Stafford  assured 
the  king  that  Queen  Elizabeth  could  as  little  attempt  to  influ- 
ence Henry  of  Navarre  to  renounce  Protestantism,  as  she  had 
influenced  him  to  adopt  it.  She  could  not  meddle  with  his  re- 
ligion. If,  however,  Henry's  own  judgment  were  to  lead  him 
to  take  this  step  for  the  good  of  his  estate,  she  would  interfere 
neither  with  his  conscience  nor  with  his  soul.  "  I  will  deal 
with  you,"  replied  the  king,  "as  plainly  as  if  you  were  my 
ghostly  father.  I  am,  in  truth,  so  strongly  attached  to  my  re- 
ligion that  I  would  gladly  have  sacrificed  a  piece  of  my  king- 
dom or  a  part  of  my  blood  that  all  the  world,  but  especially 
all  France,  should  belong  to  it.  But  I  am  not  so  much  of  a 
bigot ]  as  to  let  my  kingdom  and  myself  go  to  ruin  rather  than 
grant  both  religious  liberty  and  the  exercise  of  Protestant  wor- 
ship, as  I  have  already  granted  them  and  would  willingly  grant 
them  again.  But  it  is  now  out  of  my  power  to  do  this,  or,  in- 
deed, to  restore  peace."  From  this  Henry  the  Third  proceeded 
to  reveal  a  picture  of  his  own  most  secret  desires  and  purposes, 
respecting  which  we  need  not  his  majesty's  asseverations  to 
know  beyond  all  controversy  that  he  had  never  disclosed  it  be- 
His  hopes  ^ore  to  mortal  eye.  "  My  last  hope  was  to  have  se- 
thearmyo"  cure(l  peace  by  means  of  the  reiters.  If  they  had  had 
the  reiters.  either  valor  or  discretion,  they  might  have  compelled 
the  adherents  of  the  League  to  fall  on  their  knees  and  beg  for 
the  restoration  of  that  which  they  had  broken  in  arms.  This 
was  what  I  looked  for  and  expected.  This  was  the  only  reason 
that  I  did  not  avail  myself  of  the  many  offers  I  received  from 
the  queen  to  arrest  their  coming.     I  gave  them  every  oppor- 

1  "  He  was  not  so  much  a  '  bigot,'  as  he  termed  it,  which  in  English  is  '  over- 
superstitious.  ' " 

Vol.  II.— 2 


18       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  VJII. 

tunity  to  accomplish  their  designs  if  they  could  only  have  em- 
braced them,  and  to  keep  far  away  from  me  ;  as  I  remained  far 
away  from  them,  until  they  must  needs  come  and  seek  me  out, 
and  by  their  mismanagement  bring  me  to  sucli  a  pass  that  the 
world  almost  pointed  the  finger  at  me.  Had  they  ravaged  Lor- 
raine and  those  parts  of  Champagne  and  Burgundy  that  were 
devoted  to  the  League,  leaving  none  unspoiled  that  adhered  to 
that  party,  my  enemies  would  soon  have  been  more  glad  to  sue 
for  peace  than  they  had  been  to  fight.  Instead  of  which,  the 
reiters  came  and  sought  me  out,  and  permitted  themselves  to  be 
brought  so  completely  in  my  hands  that  I  must  either  do  as  I 
did  or  give  the  League  the  advantage  they  desired  to  gain  over 
me  by  appropriating  the  credit  of  the  whole  success.''  After 
which  Henry  went  on  to  claim  that  he  alone  had  been  the  in- 
strument of  saving  the  lives  of  those  of  the  reiters  that  esca 
and  to  blame  the  stupidity  of  the  leaders  who  had  effectually 
precluded  the  possibility  of  making  good  use  of  any  future 
armies  that  might  come  in  from  Germany.' 

Again  the  king  returned  to  the  charge,  and  insisted  that  in 
the  conversion  of  Henry  of  Navarre  lay  the  only  hope  of  over- 
throwing the  League,  and  again  did  Queen  Elizabeth's  faithful 
ambassador  oppose.  lie  saw  not,  he  said,  how  her  ma 
could  open  her  mouth  to  Navarre  on  such  a  subject.  Moreover, 
if  she  did,  he  saw  not  how  Navarre  could  yield,  for  he  had  no 
power  over  the  Prince  of  Conde  ;  and,  if  both  Xavarre  and 
Conde  should  yield,  there  were  great  numbers  of  Protestants 
and  a  great  number  of  towns  and  strongholds  over  which  Na- 
varre would  lose  all  control  the  moment  he  should  forsake  his 
faith.  The  pretext  of  religion  would  still  remain  for  the  League 
to  make  use  of.  "Not  so,"  replied  the  king,  "  for  the  rest  of 
the  Protestants  would  more  easily  be  brought  to  think  opon 


1  When  Stafford  subsequently  sounded  the  king  to  discover  whether  his 
majesty  would  be  displeased  should  the  reiters  return  and  lay  waste  Lorraine, 
etc.,  but  come  no  farther,  Henry  seemed  not  to  be  displeased  at  the  suggestion  ; 
"for  these  were  his  very  words,  '  Le  diable  les  emporte,  qu'ils  n'y  out  de- 
meure  dernierement,  canaille  qu'ils  sont,  et  ne     .     .  chercher  leur  mal- 

heur,  et  [trouver  ceux]  qui  ne  les  demandoient  pas,  sans  faire  ce  qu'ils   [deb- 
voient]  et  pouvoient  aizement  faire.'  " 


1588.  THE  BARRICADES.  19 

their  consciences  and  dispose  themselves  to  submission.  At  any 
rate,  the  popular  fear  based  upon  the  fact  that  the  next  two 
princes  in  the  succession  are  Huguenots  would  cease,  and  the 
League  would  be  brought  back  to  the  same  state  that  they  were 
in  when  the  Duke  of  Anjou  was  alive.  At  that  time  they  could 
not  find  means  to  have  this  color  (pretext)  to  put  out  their 
horns,  and  now,  if  that  cause  ceased,  they  would  be  compelled 
to  pull  in  their  horns,  to  their  utter  overthrow.1'  To  this  spe- 
cious argument  Stafford  promptly  replied  that,  were  he  a  mem- 
ber of  the  King  of  Navarre's  council,  and  that  prince  were  to 
ask  him  to  give  his  opinion  without  meddling  with  the  matter 
of  his  conscience,  he  would  advise  him  to  act  as  the  King  of 
France  desired ;  but  that,  were  he  a  member  of  the  council  of 
the  King  of  France,  he  would  rather  be  torn  in  pieces  than  ad- 
vise the  latter  to  desire  Navarre's  conversion.  On  the  contrary, 
he  would  do  all  in  his  power  to  prevent  it.  He  would  prefer 
that  his  religion  should  remain  a  bar  in  the  way  of  Navarre's 
attempting  anything  to  the  king's  disadvantage,  rather  than 
that,  this  obstacle  having  been  removed,  the  King  of  Navarre 
should  come  forth  from  eclipse,  like  the  sun  rising  clear  to  be 
worshipped  by  all.  Sir  Edward  Stafford's  metaphors  might  be 
somewhat  mixed,  but  there  was  certainly  some  sound  sense  in 
what  he  said.  So  Henry  himself  seems  to  have  thought.  "At 
length,  with  thanks  he  told  me,"  wrote  the  ambassador,  "  that 
every  one  could  rule  a  shrewd  wTife  but  he  that  had  her,  and 
that  he  that  had  her  could  tell  worse  the  way  to  rule  her,  and 
that  was  his  case ;  but  that  he  had  rather  hazard  the  pulling 
of  them  (the  League)  down  with  the  King  of  Navarre,  which 
he  saw  a  possibility  in,  and  stand  upon  those  hazards,  than  in 
letting  them  have  that  color  (pretext)  still,  to  make  it  an  im- 
possible thing  to  pull  them  ever  upon  their  knees,  but  to  see 
them  strengthen  in  despite  of  him  daily.  ...  As  for  the 
King  of  Navarre,  having  once  the  pretence  of  his  religion  and 
then  foregone  it,  the  pretence  of  the  Catholic  religion  would 
never  serve  the  King  of  Navarre  to  hurt  him  in  his  time." 

Such  was  the  sorry  condition  in  which  Henry  of  Yalois 
portrayed  himself  before  the  eyes  of  the  English  ambassador 
— a  king  reduced  to  ask,  in  the  utmost  confidence,  the  media- 


20  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF   NAVARRE        Ctt  VI I L 

tion  of  a  foreign  queen  between  himself  and  his  subjects,  a 
mediation  opposed  by  his  mother  and  all  his  council  as  "  a 
thing  unhonorable  to  him  to  desire  it ;  " — a  king  compelled  t<  i 
say  of  himself,  "  that  his  case,  if  it  were  well  weighed,  were 
both  to  be  regarded,  pitied,  and  helped  ;  that  he  had  not  man  v 
to  trust  to,  when  his  nearest  failed  him,  and  they  that  with  all 
kind  of  bonds  were  most  tied  to  him.'1 ' 

Not  many  days  after  the  memorable  interview  just  related. 
an  event  took  place  of  much  moment  both  to  Huguenots  and 
to  Roman  Catholics.  This  event  was  the  sudden  death  of  the 
King  of  Navarre's  cousin,  Henry  of  Conde 

In  a  preceding  chapter  it  has  been  seen  with  what  universal 
manifestations  of  joy  the  Protestants  of  the  kingdom  received 
the  tidings  of  the  marriage  of  the  prince  to  an  heiress  profess- 
ing his  own  faith,  Catharine  Charlotte  de  la  Tremouille.'  Nbl 
quite  two  years  had  elapsed,  and  now  came  the  news  that  the 
Death  of  the  bridegroom  of  so  few  months  had  been  put  out  of 
Condi  °March  tne  wa7  by  poison  administered,  it  was  stoutly  main- 
5,1588.  tained,  by  instigation  of  the  princess  herself.     Accu- 

sations of  this  kind  were  indeed  frequent  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, and  in  many  cases  they  were  wholly  groundless.  Greater 
intelligence  and  a  more  profound  knowledge  of  medicine  than 
had  then  been  attained,  would,  we  must  charitably  believe,  have 


1  The  long  and  important  letter  of  Sir  Edward  Stafford  to  the  qui 
February  25,  158|,  is  given  entire  in  Hardwick's  State  Papers   London,  1778 
i.  251-264.     What  Mr.  Froude  inserts  in  a  note  to  Ins  History  of  Englan  I 
410-3,  might  be  taken  as  intended  for  a  cop}'  of  the  letter  taken  from  the  M >. 
in  the  State  Paper  Office,  but,  in  most  places,  is  rather   a  condensation,  not 
always   accurate,    of   the  original  document.       Of  more  consequence,    how- 
ever, are  Mr.  Fronde's  extraordinary  statements  in  the  text,  where  h*' 
"He  [Henry  III.]  took  the  field  himself  to  oppose  them,  deliberately  giving 
them  opportunities  to  defeat  him.     When  they  would  not  use  them,  he  fell 
back  upon  the  Loire,  leaving  Lorraine  and  Burgundy  open  to  them  to  overrun 
and  destroy.     .     .      .     Unfortunately,  they  followed  him  into  the  heart  of 
France,"  etc.      All  this  is  just  the  opposite  of  what  was  really  the  case,  and 
what  the  king  stated  to  Stafford.     His  majesty,  instead  of  giving  the  reiters  an 
opportunity  to  defeat  him,  studiously  kept  out  of  their  way,  never  going  near 
to  the  borders,  and,  of  course,  never  "  falling  back  upon  the  Loire." 

2  Supra,  vol.  i.,  chapter  vi.,  p.  397. 


15S8.  THE  BARRICADES.  2L 

accounted  on  natural  grounds  for  many  unexpected  deaths  for 
which  ignorance  could  find  no  explanation  save  in  some  de- 
structive drug  or  perfume  concocted  and  given  by  an  enemy. 
As  a  general  thing,  the  accusation  of  poisoning  is  only  less  sus- 
picious than  the  equally  convenient  charge  of  murder  by  the 
use  of  incantation  and  witchcraft.  Unfortunately,  however, 
the  case  now  in  question  seems  hardly  to  fall  under  the  ordinary 
conditions,  and  it  is  perhaps  too  great  a  stretch  of  scepticism  to 
doubt  the  guilt  of  the  miserable  wife.  The  rude  post-mortem 
examination  which  was  made  apparently  establishes  the  fact  that 
the  prince  died  neither  from  disease  nor  from  the  results  of  over- 
exercise.  The  precipitate  flight  of  two  of  his  servants  pointed 
distinctly  to  the  instruments  employed,  while  the  detection  and 
conviction  of  a  superior  officer  of  the  household,  who  had  sup- 
plied them  money  to  make  their  escape,  gave  scarcely  less  un- 
mistakable evidence  of  the  source  from  which  the  blow  was 
struck. 

However  this  may  be,  the  unhappy  Brillaut,  from  whom 
confessions  of  complicity  had  been  wrung  by  the  tortures  of  the 
rack,  paid  the  penalty  of  his  crime  or  his  weakness  by  being 
dragged  on  a  hurdle  through  the  streets  of  Saint  Jean  d'Angely, 
and  then  torn  asunder  by  four  horses,  on  the  great  square  of 
that  city.  The  princess  herself  barely  escaped  the  most  rigor- 
ous treatment.  Tried  by  commissioners  appointed  by  the  King 
of  Navarre,  she  was  by  their  sentence  to  have  been 

Trial  and  im-  \ 

prisonmentof  questioned  on  the  rack.     Her  pregnancy  saved  her 

the  princess.       *  .      .  ..         .  ,..,..,  ,. 

from  being  submitted  to  this  indignity,  by  rendering  it 
necessary  to  adjourn  the  employment  of  torture  until  forty  days 
from  her  confinement  should  have  elapsed.  In  the  public  joy 
at  the  birth  of  a  new  prince  of  the  blood,  the  harsh  order  was 
never  put  into  execution ;  but  the  princess  remained  six  years 
in  close  imprisonment.  At  length,  long  after  the  time  of  which 
I  am  now  writing,  she  obtained  from  the  Parliament  of  Paris, 
to  which  she  had  appealed  as  by  marriage  a  princess  of  the 
blood,  a  decision  annulling  all  proceedings  against  her  and  set- 
ting her  free.  To  so  favorable  an  issue,  her  abjuration  of  Pro- 
testantism, and  the  desire  of  the  judges  to  avoid  throwing  any 
doubts  upon  the  legitimacy  of  a  boy  whom  events  might  yet 


22      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE   Ch.  VILL 

call  to  the  throne  of  France,  may  well  be  supposed  to  have  con- 
duced.1 

The  death  of  Henry  of  Conde  was  to  the  Huguenots  a  loss 

of  no  ordinary  magnitude.    In  a  certain  sense  he  could  be  styled 

the  very  heart  of  the  party.     Other  leaders  might  be 

The  prince's  J  ,  r      .  ~  ,.  .    /* 

death  an  ir-     attached  to  it  from  motives  ot  policy  and  interest: 

reparable  loss  _  ,      .  d 

totheHu-       he  belonged  to  it  from  conviction.     As  a  military 

guenots.  ill  •     1  'i  i         r    1    • 

leader  he  was  certainly  not  the  equal  or  his  cousin, 
though  with  a  well-disciplined  army  he  might  have  been  well- 
nigh  perfect.  Brave  to  a  fault,  he  did  not  so  much  bid  his 
soldiers  go,  as  himself  lead  the  way.  But  he  assumed  too  much 
for  granted.  When  the  command  had  been  given,  he  took  too 
little  pains  to  see  that  it  was  obeyed.  Lacking  the  keen  in- 
sight into  character  that  distinguished  the  King  of  Navarre,  he 
gave  credit  to  others  for  a  probity  which  they  did  not  pos- 
sess. But  if  his  ability  to  command  was  less  conspicuous  than 
that  of  the  other  Henry,  the  relative  inferiority  was,  perhaps, 
compensated  by  other  qualities.  lie  was  generous,  liberal,  and 
pious.  If  Navarre  could  on  occasion  make  duty  and  conscience 
bend  to  considerations  of  safety,  Conde  was  inflexible.  Men 
who  had  little  affection  for  him  said  that,  besides  being  cou- 
rageous, nurtured  in  the  Huguenot  faith,  and  highly  esteemed 
by  his  party,  he  was  firm  and  obstinate  beyond  those  of  his 
family  and  nation.  "  It  seemed  to  us,"  wrote  the  Florentine 
Oavriana,  on  the  receipt  of  the  tidings  of  Conde's  death,  "  that, 
were  he  removed  from  beside  the  King  of  Navarre,  it  would  be  an 
easier  task  to  come  to  an  agreement."  And  he  added  :  "  We 
shall  now  see  whether  the  devil  has  found  another  temple  wherein 
he  may  wish  to  be  honored  by  a  successor  of  the  said  prin 

1  "  Advertissement  sur  la  mort  de  Monseigneur  le  Prince  de  Conde,"  in 
Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  330-334,  and  reprinted  in  Cimber  et  Danjou, 
Archives  curieuses,  xi.  277-281.  This  contains  the  certificate  of  the  physicians 
and  surgeons.  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  660;  De  Thou,  vii.  (book  90  . 
179,  etc.;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  Lestoile,  Caviiana,  etc.,  ubi  infra  See,  also,  the 
able  article  on  Henry  of  Conde  in  Haag,  La  France  Protestante,  new  edition, 
ii.  1077,  etc.  The  child  whose  legitimacy  was  in  question,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, was  grandfather  of  the  great  Conde,  tf^  victor  of  Rocroy. 

-  "Ora  vedremo  se  il  diavolo  avra  trovaU  tempio  nel  quale  voglia  essere 
onorato  per  successore  al  detto  principe." 


15SS. 


THE  BARRICADES.  23 


Others,  who,  though  belonging  to  the  party  opposed  to  him, 
were  more  amiably  disposed,  magnified  Conde's  virtues  and 
deplored  only  the  adverse  fates  in  accordance  with  which,  all 
his  life  long,  he  seemed  to  have  served  as  a  shining  mark 
for  unfriendly  darts.  The  Huguenots,  on  the  other  hand,  and 
especially  those  of  the  number  whom  the  lighter  and  more  in- 
constant were  wont  to  style  the  "  Consistorial  "  faction,  thought 
more  of  the  prince's  unswerving  devotion  to  his  religion,  and 
never  forgot  that  even  the  perils  of  Saint  Bartholomew's  Day 
had  not  prevented  him  from  boldly  testifying  his  Protestant 
faith.  He  might  not  be  so  prudent  or  so  fortunate  a  general 
as  Henry  of  Navarre,  but  at  a  moment  that  called  for  truer 
heroism  than  does  the  most  desperate  battle,  while  Navarre  lis- 
tened to  the  demand  of  Charles  the  Ninth — "  the  mass,  or  death  " 
— "  with  countenance  much  moved  and  downcast,"  his  cousin  of 
Conde  showed  no  perturbation  of  mind,  and  calmly  professed 
his  intention  to  remain  constant  in  his  religion,  which  he  would, 
lie  said,  always  maintain  to  be  the  true  religion,  even  should  he 
be  compelled  to  lay  down  his  life  for  it.1 

France  could  ill  afford  to  part  with  such  a  man  at  this  criti- 
cal juncture.  It  is  not  safe  to  indulge  in  conjecture  as  to  what 
the  history  of  the  kingdom  would  have  been  had  he  lived.  It 
may,  however,  well  be  doubted  whether  the  disgraceful  record 
of  a  king's  insincere  abandonment  of  his  religion,  for  the  sake  of 
a  capital  which  he  wished  to  secure,  would  have  found  a  place 
there  The  crime  that  freed  Henry  of  Navarre  of  a  competitor 
in  the  good  graces  of  the  Huguenots,  and  of  a  rival  in  their  af- 
fections, whom  at  times  he  viewed  with  suspicion  akin  to  hatred, 
also  removed  the  only  kinsman  who  might  have  restrained  him 
from  the  commission  of  the  most  signal  error — shall  I  not  say, 
the  fatal  blunder? — of  his  eventful  life.  But  whether  even 
that  kinsman's  arm  would  have  proved  strong  enough  to  over- 
come in  an  ambitions    monarch  the  promptings  of  his  thirst 


1  See  the  Rise  of  the  Huguenots,  ii.  469.  For  the  character  of  Henry  of 
Condc  compare  Lestoile,  i.  466,  467  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  180  ;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne, 
iii.  72;  Cavriana  to  Serguidi,  February  (read  March)  11,  1588,  in  Negociations 
avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  747. 


24       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  VIIL 

for  undisputed  power,  is  a  question  I  shall  not  undertake  to 
answer. 

Meanwhile  the  tidings  of  the  untimely  fate  of  Henry  of  Con- 
de brought  sincere  grief  to  his  cousin.     The  cold  hand  of  death 
had  obliterated  the  impulse  of  jealousy  from  Xavarre'.s 

Depression  of  TT  L       _  J  *  , 

the  King  of  breast.  He  could  now  forget  that  Conde  had  some- 
times shown  too  much  independence  to  suit  his  kins- 
man's notions  of  his  own  dignity  as  the  representative  of  the  elder 
line.  He  could  forget  that  the  prince  had  often  betrayed  the  feel- 
ing that,  either  because  of  his  greater  devotion  to  the  good  cause, 
or  because  of  the  year  by  which  he  was  the  senior  of  Xavarre,1 
he  was  the  truer  exponent  of  Huguenot  views  and  aims.  He 
could  forget  the  ambitious  designs  falsely  ascribed  to  the  prince, 
and  the  plans  of  aggrandizement  which  even  Sully  is  not 
ashamed  to  lay  to  his  charge.2  At  the  present  moment  the 
Bearnais  remembered  only  the  cruel  end  of  the  poor  prince, 
"poor — but  not  in  heart,"  3  and  the  perplexities  and  dangers 
environing  his  own  situation.  In  fact,  never  does  Henry  of 
Navarre's  correspondence  betray  more  disturbance  of  mind  than 
he  displayed  about  this  time  in  his  private  letters  to  the  Coun- 
tess of  Grammont.  One  day  he  jots  down  almost  incoherently  : 
"  The  devil  is  unchained.  I  am  to  be  pitied,  and  it  is  a  marvel 
that  I  do  not  succumb  under  the  burden.  If  I  were  not  a  Hu- 
guenot, I  should  turn  Turk.  Oh,  the  violent  trials  by  which 
my  brain  is  harassed !  I  must  needs  soon  become  either  a 
or  a  skilful  man.  This  year  will  be  my  touchstone.  Domestic 
misfortune  is  a  very  painful  ill.  All  the  tortures  which  a  mind 
can  experience  are  unintermittingly  inflicted  upon  mine."  '  A 
day  or  two  later,  he  writes  of  the  new  disaster  of  Conde's  death, 
in  which  he  sees  the  hand  of  the  League  :     "  I  am  at  this  hour 


1  Henry  of  Conde  was  born  at  La  Ferte  sous  Jouarre,  December  29,  1552. 
Henry  of  Navarre  was  born  at  Pau,  December  13,  1553. 

2  E.g.,  in  chapter  xiii.  of  his  Memoires,  "  Ce  prince  fit  lors  des  brigues  et 
menees,  pour  former  dans  le  party  general  de  ceux  de  la  Religion,  qnelque 
espece  de  party  particulier,  qui  dependist  tout  de  luy,"  etc. 

3  "Ce  pauvre  prince  (non  de  cceur)."  Henry  of  Navarre  to  the  Countess  of 
Grammont,  March  10,  1588,  Lettres  missives,  ii.  343. 

4  Letter  of  March  8  (from  Nerac),  ibid.,  ii.  342. 


1588.  THE  BARRICADES.  25 

the  single  target  at  which  all  the  perfidious  deeds  of  the  mass 
are  aimed.  They  have  poisoned  him,  the  traitors  !  Yet  is  it 
certain  that  God  will  remain  master,  and  I,  by  His  grace^  shall 
be  the  executor  of  His  purposes."  '  Three  days  pass,  and  he 
exclaims:  "Recall  to  mind  what  I  formerly  told  you  (and  I 
am  rarely  mistaken  in  my  judgments).  A  bad  woman  is  a 
dangerous  beast.  All  these  poisoners  are  papists."2  In  an- 
other letter,  written  on  his  way  from  Gascony  to  the  town 
where  the  prince  had  met  with  his  untimely  end  :  "  The  Rom- 
ish preachers  loudly  proclaim  through  the  towns  about  here, 
that  there  is  but  one  more  person  to  be  secured.  They  can- 
onize this  fine  deed  and  him  that  executed  it.  They  admonish 
all  good  Catholics  to  take  example  from  so  Christian  an  enter- 
prise. And  you  are  of  that  religion!  "3  A  miscreant  was  ar- 
rested, who  was  believed  to  have  been  hired  to  put  Navarre  out 
of  the  way  after  the  same  fashion  as  his  cousin  ;  whereupon  the 
Huguenot  king  penned  these  lines  to  the  Huguenot  minister, 
La  Roche  Chandieu,  one  of  those  who  had  prayed  and  had 
fought  by  his  side  at  Coutras:  "Upon  what  a  miserable  time 
are  we  fallen,  and  how  incensed  against  us  is  God,  that  this 
age  produces  such  monsters,  who,  though  they  make  a  trade  of 
assassination  and  poisoning,  yet  wish  to  be  esteemed  men  of 
honor  and  virtue  !  I  know  that  they  can  do  nothing  against 
me,  unless  it  be  by  the  permission  of  God,  upon  whose  provi- 
dence I  place  my  whole  reliance,  and  am  well  assured  that, 
though  He  may  tarry,  yet,  in  spite  of  all  His  enemies,  He  will 
deliver  His  church.  If  He  be  not  pleased  to  use  me  in  this 
matter,  He  has  a  plenty  of  other  means  in  His  hands  to  accom- 
plish His  designs."  4 

Entertaining   such    sentiments,   the  Navarrese  king  replied 

1  Letter  of  March  10,  ibid.,  ii.  343. 
-  Letter  of  March  13,  ibid.,  ii.  346. 

3  Letter  of  March  17,  from  Pons  sur  Saigne,  in  Saintonge,  ibid.,  ii.  349. 
The  Bearnais  used  this  as  a  text  to  urge  his  mistress  not  to  defer  her  conver- 
sion to  Protestantism.  "  Certes,  mon  coeur,  c'est  un  beau  subject  et  [que] 
nostre  misere,  pour  faire  paroistre  vostre  piete  et  vostre  vertu.  N'attendes 
pas  a.  une  aultre  fois  a  jeter  ce  froc  aux  orties." 

4  Lettres  missives,  ii.  351,  352. 


*  irm  answer  to 
the  advances 
of  the  King 


26      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cn.  VIII. 

with  firmness  to  the  advances  made  to  him  by  a  fresh  envoy  of 
Henry  the  Third.  He  disclaimed  any  responsibility  for  the  war 
now  raging,  and  thanked  God  for  the  French  king's  inclination 
to  peace.  He  promised  his  own  co-operation  in  bring- 
ing about  so  blessed  a  state  of  things.  But  he  did 
of  France.  u0^  conceal  his  belief  that  his  majesty  would  find  it 
impossible  to  secure  a  stable  peace  without  satisfying  the  con- 
scientious demands  of  his  subjects.  This  was  no  newly  discov- 
ered truth ;  it  was  the  experience  of  all  countries  where  relig- 
ion had  been  brought  into  question,  for  the  past  thirty  year-. 
As  to  himself,  he  repeated,  as  on  so  many  other  occasions,  he 
was  not  obstinate — obstinacy  would  be  a  very  costly  luxury 
in  his  case — and  he  had  always  professed  his  willingness 
receive  instruction  in  all  proper  ways.1 

Meanwhile,  Conde  was  scarcely  dead  before  the  enemies  of 
the  Huguenots  began  to  indulge  in  conjecture  concerning  a  suc- 
cessor to  the  important  place  thus  left  vacant.     The 

Roman  Catho-  .  ...  -\   •  r 

nc conjectures  question  was  not  as  to  the  princes  governorship  or 

respecting  ,  .  „  ~    .         T  ,,.  .  T-x.  ,.  .. 

conde'ssuc-    the  citv  or  oaint  Jean  d  Angely.  Disregarding  the  ac- 


cessor. 


mands  of  the  Guises,  Henry  of  Yalois  had  promptly 
conferred  that  office  upon  the  now  loyal  Duke  of  Xevers,  and 
not  upon  the  Duke  of  Aumale.  More  important  than  the  gov- 
ernorship of  a  single  city  was  the  position  of  Conde*  in  the  great 
Huguenot  party,  second  only  to  the  position  of  Navarre  him- 
self. Who  would  take  that  ?  Upon  this  point  the  Tuscan 
agent  at  the  French  capital  enlarged  much  in  his  home  corre- 
spondence, and  his  remarks  are  worthy  of  attention,  both  on 
account  of  his  wide  acquaintance  with  the  politics  of  the  coun- 
try of  which  he  had  long  been  a  resident,  and  because  they  give 
an  admirable  view  of  the  cynical  scepticism  prevailing  among 
intelligent  men  as  to  the  sincerity  of  the  actors  in  the  crusade 
now  waged  against  the  Huguenots  in  the  name  of  religion. 

The  most  promising  candidates  for  the  succession,  we  are  told, 
are  Cliatillon  and  Turenne,  both  of  whom  the  writer  regards 


1  "Response  du  Roy  de  Navarre  aux  propositions  du  sieur  de  Saincte  Col- 
ombe  "  (February,  1588) — written  by  Duplessis  Mornaj,  and  printed  in  his 
Memoires,  iv.  183-185. 


1588.  THE  BARRICADES.  27 

as  men  of  more  firmness  than  the  King  of  Navarre.  Either 
one  of  these  may  become  a  Sertorius.  Then  there  are  the  two 
brothers  of  Conde — the  Count  of  Soissons  and  the  Prince  of 
Conty — who  have  the  advantage  of  being  of  the  blood  royal. 
To  this  suggestion  it  may  be  objected  that  these  two  brothers 
cannot  become  leaders  of  the  Huguenots  because,  being  Catho- 
lics, they  will  not  consent  to  change  their  religion,  and  because 
they  cannot  claim  the  confidence  of  Navarre's  party.  "  I  reply," 
says  Cavriana,  "  that  you  gentlemen  of  Rome  are  very  far  re- 
moved from  the  state  of  the  case.  Men  are  not  combating  for 
the  faith,  nor  for  Christ,  but  solely  for  command.  Everybody 
professes  to  believe  in  a  king,  wants  one,  and  shouts  for  him; 
but  all  would  like  to  strip  him  of  his  robes  and  his  authority. 
Were  a  leader  to  be  found  more  devout  and  Catholic  than  a 
Capuchin  monk,  who  yet  should  promise  the  Huguenots  to  do 
what  they  do,  he  would  be  revered  and  adored  by  them.  More- 
over, there  is  to  be  considered  the  fact  that  men  see  that  the 
most  holy  League  wants  to  extirpate  the  family  of  Bourbon  to- 
gether with  the  royal  family,  having  taken  the  Cardinal  of  Bour- 
bon as  its  guide  and  general  in  the  work  of  extinction.  The 
Huguenots  will  always  believe  in  the  Bourbons  sprung  from 
the  late  Prince  of  Conde  ;  be  they  of  this  or  that  sect,  it  makes 
no  difference.  And  the  old  Frenchmen,  bound  by  affection  to 
their  own  nation,  think  it  strange  that  Spain  and  Lorraine  lay 
claim  to  the  crown  of  the  land  of  their  birth.  The  Cardinal 
of  Bourbon,  an  arch-Catholic,  has  shown  marks  of  joy  at  Conde's 
death.  I  do  not  know  whether,  in  his  heart,  he  feels  sorrow, 
as  a  man,  for  the  loss  of  his  nephew.  Methinks,  the  old  care  lit- 
tle except  for  self-preservation,  and  when  that  demon,  a  desire  to 
become  king,  has  entered  into  a  man,  the  removal  of  any  obsta- 
cle will  afford  him  subject  for  rejoicing."  ' 

"  Bellievre  and  La  Guiche  have  gone  to  Guise  and  are  now 


1  Cardinal  Bourbon,  we  learn  from  Lestoile,  exclaimed  to  Henry  III. ,  when 
the  tidings  of  his  nephew's  death  first  came  :  "  See,  Sire,  what  a  thing  it  is 
to  be  excommunicated.  As  for  myself,  I  attribute  his  death  to  nothing  else 
than  to  the  thunderbolt  of  excommunication  by  which  he  was  struck."  Me- 
moires  de  Henry  III. ,  109. 


28  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.       Cn    VIII. 

expected  back  again.  But  Guise  will  give  them  fair  words  and 
nothing  more,  for  lie  does  not  want  peace  on  any  conditions ; 
because,  in  the  first  place,  so  long  as  he  is  in  arms  he  has  power, 
and  because,  secondly,  Spain  so  advises,  thanks  to  which  he 
manages  barely  to  subsist  in  a  manner  that  does  not  deserve  to 
be  styled  'living:'  for  he  can  never  secure  enough 

The  League  J  . 

has  no  desire    irom  that  source  to  satisfv  the  gnawmgs  or  hunger, 

for  peace.  J  ° 

so  sparingly  is  he  supplied  with  money. '  Conse- 
quently, this  holy  League  eats  on  every  side,  and  none  the 
less  is  very  lean  and  emaciated.  If  we  lived  as  we  should 
live,  the  League  would  be  undone  within  three  months  ;  but  all 
malcontents  and  lovers  of  novelty  among  us  find  a  support  in 
it.  The  League  is  set  for  the  ruin  of  France,  and,  if  God  pre- 
vent not,  for  the  ruin  of  the  Catholic  faith  also.  You  can  see 
that  this  is  so.  »Up  to  the  present  time  ecclesiastical  property 
has  been  sold  to  the  amount  of  two  hundred  thousand  crowns 
of  yearly  income,  and  yet  the  Huguenots  are  as  strong  and  as 
firm  as  at  first.  Meanwhile  the  people  are  more  and  more  com- 
pletely ruined.  I  have  said  that  the  League  eats  on  every 
side:  Spain  and  Rome  contribute  to  the  Duke  of  Guise; 
the  churches  of  France  and  some  individual  persons  do  the 
same,  but  a  little  more  sparingly  than  used  to  be  the 
and  the  king  makes  great  concessions.  Who,  then,  finding 
himself  so  situated,  would  lay  down  his  arms?  "What  so  elo- 
quent orator  could  persuade  him  \  The  Duke,  young,  florid, 
ardent,  with  a  numerous  following  of  relations,  all  of  them  cap- 
able of  bearing  arms,  cannot  lose  by  waiting,  and  gains  by  every 
mistake  of  the  royal  party.  Knowing  its  divisions,  he  bides  his 
time.  Men  cry  out  against  Epernon  as  the  obstacle  to  the  re- 
conciliation of  Guise  and  the  king  ;  but  were  Epernon  to  die, 
another  and  yet  another  Epernon  would  arise  to  take  his  place. 
Everybody  wants  to  command.  You  Italians  are  too  far  off  to 
hear  our  cries  or  to  see  our  tears  ;  but,  believe  me,  should  this 
kingdom  be  lost,  which  alone  makes  head  against  Spain,  you 
will  see  how  little  wisdom  you  displayed  in  assenting  to  the 
League,  and  such  a  league  as  this,  which  purposely  ruins  the 

'This  passage  has  already  been  referred  to,  vol.  i.,  chapter  iv.  p.  268. 


1588.  THE   BARRICADES.  29 


kingdom.     It  is  well  to  conserve  the  Catholic  faith,  but  it  must 
be  done  by  other  means  than  these."  J 

It  was  a  very  shrewd  and  well-informed  person  who  wrote 
down  these  views  of  public  affairs,  and  he  was  at  the  time  just 
where  he  might  have  been  expected  to  enjoy  the  best  oppor- 
tunities for  obtaining  a  clear  insight  into  the  course  of  events. 
Yet  even  he  did  not  know  or  suspect  that  the  course  of  the 
League  was  wholly  dependent  upon  the  will  of  Philip  the » Sec- 
ond, and  that  the  next  decided  blow  was  to  be  timed 

Philip  the  .  . 

second  directs  with  exclusive  reference  to  that  enterprise  against 
England  upon  the  execution  of  which  the  secret  plot- 
ter of  the  Escorial  had  long  been  concentrating  his  malignant 
thoughts.  For  the  Duke  of  Guise  must  make  his  descent  upon 
Paris,  and,  by  getting  possession  of  the  person  of  Henry  of 
Yalois,  put  it  out  of  that  monarch's  power  to  succor  Queen 
Elizabeth,  and  must  make  this  move  neither  too  early  nor  too 
late — a  fortnight  or  three  weeks  before  the  Invincible  Armada 
should  set  sail  on  its  triumphant  progress  from  the  port  of  Lis- 
bon.2 Thus  would  the  same  results  be  obtained  as  if  the  Duch- 
ess of  Montpensier's  plots  had  been  successful,  or  those  other 
plots  of  humbler  members  of  the  League,  who  proposed  to 
waylay  the  king  in  the  Rue  Saint  Antoine,  on  his  return  from 
the  Bois  de  Vincennes,  and  either  murder  him  or  shut  him 
up  for  the  rest  of  his  days  in   a   monastery.3     Meanwhile,  so 

'Cavriana  to  Serguidi,  February  (March)  11,  1588,  Negotiations  avec  la 
Toscane,  iv.  747-752. 

-  The  "  Barricades"  of  Paris  took  place  May  12 ;  the  Armada  was  to  sail  on 
the  29th  of  the  same  month.  Michelet,  La  Ligue  et  Henri  IV.,  c.  13,  page 
170. 

3  Such  a  plot  seems  to  have  been  formed  two  years  or  thereabouts  before,  but 
Poulain  states  his  inability  to  fix  the  precise  date.  "  Procez  Verbal  d'un 
nomme  Nicolas  Poulain,"  in  Memoires  de  Henri  III.,  155.  Although  frus- 
trated then,  the  scheme  was  now  revived  by  the  Duchess  of  Montpensier,  and 
again  it  was  arranged  that,  on  Thursday,  May  5,  1588,  just  one  week  before 
the  Barricades,  his  majesty  should  be  seized  outside  of  the  gate  of  Saint  An- 
toine, and  hurried  off  to  Soissons.  It  would  then  be  given  out  that  the  Hugue- 
nots had  abducted  the  king,  and  the  populace  would  be  stirred  up  to  fall 
upon  and  massacre  every  one  suspected  of  belonging  to  the  party  of  the  Poli- 
tiques.  Ibid.,  183;  De  Thou,  vii.  (book  90)  184,  185.  Other  conspiracies 
betrayed  by  Poulain,  as,  for  example,  that  on  the  day  of  "  carome  prenant," 


30      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  VIIL 

profoundly  ignorant  was  the  French  monarch  of  Philip's  com- 
mon designs  upon  France  and  England,  that  he  actually  feared 
lest  some  arrangement  might  be  effected  between  Spain  and 
the  latter  country ;  and  to  prevent  this  result,  he  offered  Queen 
Elizabeth,  should  she  be  attacked  by  Philip,  double  the  forces 
which  the  treaty  of  1574  bound  him  to  furnish  for  her  defence.1 
Philip  did  not  relax  his  precautions  of  secrecy  as  the  time  for 
action  approached,  or  cease  to  enjoin  his  agents  to  be  careful. 
Even  when  Mendoza  wrote  from  Paris  to  inform  him  of  Guise's 
purpose  to  place  his  own  son  in  the  hands  of  the  Duke  of  Parma 
as  a  pledge  of  devotion  to  Spanish  interests,  his  Catholic  majesty 
added  his  note  of  hesitation  on  the  margin  of  the  despatch  :  u  I 
do  not  know  but  that  this  would  be  to  make  too  much  of  a  dis- 
closure." 2 

However,  the  work  of  deceptive  negotiation  did  not  intermit. 

Guise,  with  the  cardinals  of  Bourbon  and  of  Vendome  and  with 

others  of  the  partv,  had  come  nearer  to  Pari.-,  and 

The  Duke  of  .  r        J       . 

Guise  comes    were  at  feoissons — a  citv  even  more  convenient  as  a 

to  Soissons.  .  .,..,.  .  ,  , 

starting-point  or.  military  enterprises  than  as  a  place 
of  conference.  It  was  also  just  in  between  the  capital  and  the 
province  of  Picardy,  whose  cities  the  duke  protested  t»»  Men- 
doza and  Parma  he  would  under  no  circumstances  allow  the  king 
to  garrison.  He  had  taken  his  measures  so  well  that.  should 
Henry  of  Valois  start  out  in  person  for  the  refractory  province, 
he  would  soon  rue  it.  "  I  hope,"  said  Guise,  with  evident  satis- 
faction, "to  make  him  think  about  getting  home  again  before 
he  shall  have  approached  the  Picards  by  a  single  day's  journey."3 
And  what  Guise  only  hinted,  others  understood  well  enough. 
If  the  king  should  go  against  the  Duke  of  Aumale.  wrote  Cav- 
riana,  he  will  accomplish  nothing.  Guise  will  help  his  cousin, 
and  the  king  will,  for  lack  of  money,  have  but  a  sorry  follow- 
ing.    Moreover,  men  will  say  that  he  is  leaving  the  Huguenots 

or  "  mardi  gras,"  need  not  be  referred  to  in  detail.  See  Memoires  de  Henry 
III.,  169;  DeThou,  vii.  182. 

1  Mignet,  Marie  Stuart,  ii.  (chapter  12)  300. 

2  Mendoza  to  Philip  II.,   March  15,   1588,   De  Croze,  Pieces  justificatives, 
ii.  321. 

3  Mucius  (Guise)  to  Mendoza,  March  31,  1588,  ibid.,  ii.  324. 


158S.  THE  BARRICADES.  31 

unmolested  that  he  may  pursue  in  arms  the  Catholics.  "  And 
who  knows  whether,  if  he  leave  Paris,  the  citizens,  who  hate 
the  very  name  of  Epernon,  may  not  call  in  the  Duke  of  Guise '( 
Undique  angustiazP  l  Only  one  thing  was  the  Duke  of  Guise 
willing  to  do  by  way  of  throwing  a  sop  to  the  enemy.  "  We 
shall  be  satisfied,"  said  he,  "  with  finding  an  expedient  to  per- 
mit the  entrance,  for  a  few  days  only,  of  a 'certain  small  number 
of  men  into  two  or  three  large  cities  where  the  superiority  will 
remain  on  the  side  of  the  inhabitants,  together  with  the  power 
to  put  the  troops  out  of  doors  whenever  it  shall  seem  good  to 
them  so  to  do." 2 

The  mendacity  of  the  Guises  had  become  proverbial.  Never 
were  they  less  to  be  trusted  than  when  their  emotions  seemed 
to  have  gained  the  upper  hand.  It  was  not,  therefore,  very 
strange  that  at  the  very  moment  when  the  duke  was  so  unreserv- 
edly laying  bare  to  the  Spanish  ambassador  his  treasonable  de- 
signs against  Henry  of  Yalois,  he  was  assuring  Henry's  envoy, 
Bellievre,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  of  the  falsity  of  the  reports 
spread  at  Paris  to  his  disadvantage,  and  begging  the  king  to  in- 
quire into  their  authorship  and  inflict  punishment  upon  the 
guilty.  Not  to  be  outdone  in  hypocrisy  by  the  associates  with 
whom  he  had  cast  in  his  lot,  Cardinal  Bourbon,  with  great  grief 
depicted  on  his  countenance,  joined  with  Guise  in  complaining 
of  the  wrong  done  him  and  the  manifest  efforts  to  compass  his 
ruin,  but  professed  his  belief  that  God  would  not  permit  them 
to  succeed.  As  if  this  was  not  enough,  the  prelate  had  the 
effrontery  to  pretend  that  all  the  worthies  gathered  at  Sois- 
sons,  and  the  Duke  of  Guise  more  than  all  the  rest,  had  been 
laboring  hard  to  bring  the  Picards  to  reason.3 

Under  the  circumstances  there  could  be  but  one  result.  Guise 
had  consented  to  the  interview  at  Soissons  solely  to  gain  time 
and  secure  a  good  opportunity  for  going  to  Paris.  "  The  king," 
wrote  Mendoza  to  his  master  as  early  as  the  middle  of  April, 

1  Cavriana  to  Serguidi,  March  1,  1588,  Negotiations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  763. 

2  Mucius  (Guise)  to  Mendoza,  April  19,  1588,  in  De  Croze,  ii.  332,  333. 

3  "Qu'ils  ont  icy  travaille  et  Monsieur  de  Guise  plus  que  tous  les  aultres, 
pour  ranger  les  Picards  a  quelque  raison. "  Despatch  of  Bellievre,  April  26, 
1588,  De  Croze,  ii.  59,  60. 


32  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.        Ctt  VIII. 

"would  like  to  forego  this  journey,  but  he  will  not  be  able  to 
oppose  it,  because  the  burghers  of  Paris  are  firmly  resolved  to 
carry  out  next  week  the  project  of  which  I  wrote  to  your  maj- 
esty in  my  despatches  of  the  month  of  July  last.  .  .  If  the 
project  in  question  be  put  into  execution,  as  I  am  assured,  the 
king  will  have  his  hands  so  tied  that  it  will  be  impossible  for 
him,  even  in  words,  and  much  less  by  acts,  to  render  assistance 
to  the  Queen  of  England.  It  was  with  this  end  that  I  judged 
it  best  to  have  the  execution  deferred  until  his  majesty's  fleet 
should  be  ready  to  start."  ' 

It  was  a  dangerous  step  which  Guise  was  about  to  take,  but  the 
duke  was  by  no  means  deficient  in  a  certain  reckless  courage. 
Did  he  know  the  man  with  whom  he  had  to  deal  ?  He  thought 
so,  and  believed  Henry  of  Yalois  to  be  an  arrant  coward.  Men- 
doza  appears  to  have  thought  so  too,  and  he  told  his  master 
that  Guise  maintained  that  he  understood  his  French  maj- 
esty even  to  the  innermost  folds  of  his  character.8  Moreover, 
though,  according  to  his  habit,  slow  and  sparing  of  money  and 
men,  the  Spaniard  was  lavish  of  promises.  Parma  had  just 
sent  to  Guise  the  Commander  Moreo  to  hold  out  the  most 
flattering  prospect  of  aid,  to  be  rendered  so  soon  as  the  duke 
should  openly  break  with  the  Very  Christian  King.  Philip 
would  at  once  withdraw  his  ambassador  from  Paris  and  com- 
mission one  instead  to  the  united  princes  of  the  League.  Mean- 
while he  would  hold  at  the  duke's  disposal,  upon  the  frontiers 
of  France,  iive  or  six  thousand  foot  soldiers  and  one  thousand 
or  twelve  hundred  lances,  and  furnish  him  with  a  sum  of  three 
hundred  thousand  crowns  in  money.3 

The  Leaguers  in  Paris  were  more  and  more  urgent  for  Guise's 
immediate  coming.  The  Swiss  levies,  posted  by  fipernon  at 
Lagny  on  the  Marne,  seemed  to  threaten  the  unruly  capital 


1  Mendoza  to  Philip  II.,  Paris,  April  14,  1588,  second  despatch,  De  Grose, 
ii.  329,  330. 

2  Same  to  same,  March  15,  1588,  ibid.,  ii.  321. 

3  Guise  reminds  Parma  of  this  promise,  and  calls  for  a  part  of  the  proffered 
help  in  a  paper  entitled  "Punctosde  la  instruccion  del  q'  Mucio  embio  a! 
duque  de  Parma,1'  enclosed  in  a  letter  of  the  former.  May  '.29  or  30,  15SS.  De 
Croze,  ii.  341. 


1588.  THE  BARRICADES.  33 

from  above,  while  Epernon  himself  had  gone  to  take  posses- 
sion of  Rouen,  the  chief  city  of  the  province  of  Normandy, 
The  Parisians  which  had  been  committed  to  his  charge,  despite 
haften'hi0  Guise's  opposition,  after  the  death  of  Joyeuse.  Should 
coming.  £pernon  secure  Orleans  also,  Paris  would  be  men- 
aced from  three  different  quarters.1  In  response  to  the  appeals 
of  the  Parisians  and  the  urgency  of  the  Spaniards,  Henry  of 
Guise  determined  to  wait  no  longer.  He  had,  however,  taken 
good  care  to  send  into  the  city,  as  secretly  as  possible,  a  great 
number  of  armed  men  who  sympathized  with  his  views,  and  these 
had  found  shelter  as  well  in  the  religious  houses  as  in  the  homes 
of  noblemen  belonging  to  the  party  of  the  League.  This  fact  had 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  king.  Coupled  with  the  evasive 
answers  returned  by  the  duke  to  the  reiterated  requests  or  com- 
mands addressed  to  him  that  he  should  not  come  to  the  capital, 
the  incident  excited  his  uneasiness  to  the  highest  degree.  In- 
deed, a  more  pitiful  object  than  Henry  of  Yalois  at  this  junct- 
ure it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine.  He  did  not,  we  are  told, 
appear  to  care  much  about  the  seizure  of  places  about  Paris 
by  the  League — Meulan,  Meaux,  Chateau-Thierry,  and  the  like 
— and  even  now,  when  dismissing  those  who  came  to  have  an 
audience  with  him,  he  gave  them  to  understand  that  he  wanted 
peace  and  not  war.  No  one  could  make  out  the  meaning  of 
this  constant  reiteration ;  whether  it  was  that  he  hoped  in  time 
to  get  the  better  of  the  League,  or  that  his  mind  was  inclined  to 
quiet  on  any  terms.  But  more  than  ever  before  he  found  him- 
self annoyed  and  perplexed  by  not  knowing  whom  to  trust 
among  the  many  recipients  of  past  favors  who  stood  convicted 
of  disloyalty  to  his  interests.  Averse  as  he  was  to  trouble,  he 
was  compelled  to  change  his  ordinary  course  of  life,  to  write 
his  despatches  with  his  own  hand,  to  take  counsel  only  with 
himself.  He  feared  treachery  in  every  direction,  and  stood  in 
doubt  of  his  own  guards.  Those  who  wished  him  well,  sighed 
to  think  that  the  cure  of  present  complications  was  beyond 
reach,  because  the  remedy  was  nothing  less  than  a  change  in 
the  king's  own  character.     "  If  only  the  king,  as  he  possesses 

1  Michelet,  ubi  supra,  173. 
Vol.  II.— 3 


34  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.        Cu.  VIII. 

judgment  and  prudence,  had  also  a  trifle  more  courage  than  lie 
displays" — so  wrote  Cavriana — "our  affairs  would  go  well. 
The  rich,  the  good,  the  true  Frenchmen  are  for  the  king ;  the 
others,  who  are  fortune-hunters,  follow  the  opposed  party." 
"  My  good  sir,"  he  added  to  his  correspondent,  "  this  is  one  of 
the  greatest  revolts  and  rebellions  ever  heard  of.  I  much  fear 
that  before  a  month  shall  have  passed,  I  shall  have  to  write  of 
some  very  strange  developments.  Guise  wants  to  reign,  and 
the  king  has  little  ability  to  hinder  him.  In  consequence  he 
will  be  constrained  to  submit  to  the  command  of  his  subject."  ' 
Now  was  Mendoza  anxious  in  good  earnest.  He  had  suc- 
ceeded in  securing,  by  the  treachery  of  Henry  of  Valois's  trusty 
servants,  a  copy  of  the  instructions  given  to  the  royal  secretary 
sent  to  Constantinople  to  stir  up  the  Grand  Turk  to  make  peace 
with  Persia  and  attack  the  Spaniard.  lie  had  learned  from 
Rouen  that  the  partisans  of  the  League  in  that  city  were  fully 
prepared  to  seize  the  person  of  their  archenemy,  the  Duke  of 
Epernon.  He  had  it  on  good  authority  that  Henry's  knavish 
secretary  Yilleroy,  who  seemed  never  more  at  home  than  when 
betraying  his  master's  secrets,  had  given  assurance  to  Guise,  in 
a  paper  over  his  own  signature,  that  he  would  rejoice  at  the 
murder  of  the  king's  haughty  minion,  and  that  the  sentiment 
of  gladness  would  be  shared  by  most  of  the  nobles  not  con- 
nected with  the  League.  News  had  come  that  many  of  the 
gentlemen  of  the  party  were  in  the  castles  hard  by  Paris,  and 
common  soldiers  in  great  numbers  were  already  within  the  city. 
So  eagerly  did  the  Parisians  long  for  Guise's  arrival,  that  the 
duke's  usual  envoy,  M.  de  Mayneville,  sent  by  him  with  certain 
information  which  he  deemed  it  imprudent  to  put  down  in 
writing,  had  been  sent  back  bv  them,  before  he  had  even  had 
an  opportunity  to  deliver  his  message  to  Mendoza,  to  implore 
that  champion  of  the  Church  to  come  instantly  to  the  rescue. 
"  From  all  this,"  wrote  the  Spanish  ambassador,  making  n& 
a  figure  more  forcible  than  refined,  "from  all  this  it  is  eae 
conclude  that  the  abscess  will  burst  before  long."  ' 


1  Cavriana  to  Sergnidi,  May  7,  1588,  N£gociations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  775 

2  Mendoza  to  Philip  II.,  May  7,  1588,  De  Croze,  ii.  ooo-ooo. 


1588.  THE  BARRICADES.  '6b 

One  Monday  morning  in  May — it  was  the  ninth  of  the  month 
— Bellievre  was  seen  at  the  northern  gates  of  Paris,  on  his  way 
Guise  unex-  Dack  from  Soissons.  lie  had  been  despatched  thith- 
pectediy         er  a  few  days  before,  with  express  orders  to  Guise  to 

comes  to  the  '  «/  -T 

capital.  adjourn  his  proposed  visit  to  the  capital.     The  duke 

was  told  that,  should  he  persist  in  his  design,  the  king  would 
regard  him  as  a  criminal  and  hold  him  responsible  for  all  the 
troubles  that  might  ensue.  The  envoy  was  sent  back  with  an 
evasive  answer.  It  was  toward  nine  o'clock  when  he  entered 
the  Porte  Saint  Martin  and  directed  his  steps  toward  the  palace 
of  the  Louvre.  Three  hours  had  scarcely  passed  when  a  small 
cavalcade — there  may  have  been  seven  or  eight  gentlemen  and 
not  over  twice  that  number  of  horsemen  all  told — rode  in  from 
the  same  quarter.'  One  of  the  party,  and  apparently  the  lead- 
er, wore  his  hat  drawn  far  down  over  his  face,  as  if  to  avoid 
recognition.  Suddenly,  whether  by  a  preconcerted  plan  or  from 
a  mere  love  of  sport,  a  bystander  laid  hold  of  the  hat  and, 
raising  it,  disclosed  the  features  of  a  man  whom  the  Parisian 
populace  had  come  to  adore  as  a  god.  The  cry  of  "Vive 
Guise  "  arose  on  all  sides,  and  was  repeated  with  far  more  en- 
thusiasm than  the  cry  of  "  Vive  le  Roi "  had  ever  been  caught 
up  within  the  memory  of  living  man.  And  now  the  rebellious 
subject  who,  taking  his  life  in  his  hand,  had  come  almost  alone 
to  beard  his  sovereign  in  his  very  capital,  was  surrounded  by  a 
throng,  increasing  at  every  step,  until  it  was  estimated  that  no 
fewer  than  thirty  thousand  persons  accompanied  him  before  he 
was  half  through  the  city.  Never  was  ovation  more  complete. 
Men  and  women  rushed  from  work-room  and  from  shop.  There 
was  no  act,  there  were  no  words  too  extravagant  for  the  expres- 
sion of  the  joy  felt  at  the  advent  of  him  whom  they  greeted  as 
their  savior  from  the  worst  of  fates.  Those  fortunate  persons 
who  could  get  near  to  him  embraced  him,  or,  failing  in  that, 
kissed  the  very  hem  of  his  garments.     Some  drew  out  their 


"Y  seroit  arrive  en  plein  midy  avec  sept  chevaux  seulement,"  says  the 
"Copie  des  lettres  que  les  habitants  de  Paris  escrivirent  aux  villes  du  Eoy- 
auine  de  France  de  la  Religion  Romaine,  du  dixhuitieme  de  May  1588,"  in 
the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  369. 


36  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND   HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.        Ch    VIII. 

rosaries  and  endeavored  to  add  new  sanctity  to  these  aids  to  de- 
votion by  rubbing  them  against  the  body  of  him  whom  their 
imaginations  exalted  into  one  of  the  company  of  the  saints  ; 
whereupon  they  passionately  pressed  the  beads  to  their  lips, 
their  eyes,  and  their  foreheads.  Those  who  could  not  get  at  the 
duke  for  the  press  were  fain  to  content  themselves  with  ex- 
pressive gestures  and  wrords  of  welcome.  The  gentle  sex  from 
their  windows  strewed  flowers  in  his  way,  and  loudly  blessed 
his  coming.  Vitri,  one  of  the  queen's  maids  of  honor,  distin- 
guished herself  above  the  rest,  by  lowering  the  mask,  behind 
which  it  was  the  fashion  for  ladies  of  quality  to  conceal  their 
faces,  and  crying  out :  "  Good  prince,  since  thou  art  here,  we 
are  all  saved.  Shall  I  not  die  after  having  seen  thee  kii 
No  conqueror  returning  from  a  hardly  contested  field  could  have 
desired  a  more  splendid  triumph. 

The  nobleman  who  was  the  object  of  their  jubilant  demon- 
strations accepted  and  returned  the  greetings  of  the  people,  hat 
in  hand,  with  the  most  conciliatory  air.  After  traversing  a  good 
part  of  the  Rue  Saint  Denis,  without  waiting  to  go  to  his  own 
stately  house,  he  presented  himself,  all  booted  and  spurred  as 
he  was,  to  the  queen  mother,  in  her  apartments  in  the  Hotel  de 
Soissons  (or  the  Filles  Repenties)  hard  by  the  church  of  Saint 
Eustache.1 

For  shrewdness  and  fertility  of  device,  Catharine  de'  Medici 
had  no  superior,  and  few  equals,  among  the  women  of  her 
He  visits  the  time.  If  the  ability  to  hoodwink  the  unsuspecting, 
queen  mother,  ^0  amuse  naif  a  dozen  rivals  for  power  by  as  many 
false  stories,  and  to  deceive  temporarily  without  reference  to  the 
day  of  reckoning  that  is  sure  to  come  in  the  end — if  this  con- 
stitutes the  highest  form  of  genius  to  which  mankind  should 
:aspire,  then  the  Italian  princess,  who  had  spent  close  upon  the 
allotted  threescore  and  ten  years  in  such  ignoble  pursuits  may 
unquestionably  be  accorded  the  palm.  But  never  was  there  a 
woman  to  whom,  within  the  compass  of  a  single  brief  life,  a 
greater  number  of  humiliating  experiences  seemed  to  have  been 


1  See,  especially,  Davila,  book  ix.,  337  ;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  73  (book  i., 
chapter  xix.). 


1588.  THE  BARRICADES.  37 

reserved.  On  the  present  occasion  she  was  both  surprised  and 
disconcerted.  How  should  she  defend  herself  against  the  re- 
proaches of  her  son  whom  she  had  all  along  endeavored  to  quiet 
with  assurances  of  the  duke's  good  intentions?  How  prove  to 
him  that  the  nobleman,  who,  in  direct  defiance  of  the  king's 
prohibition,  had  had  the  audacity  to  push  on  to  Paris,  was  a 
faithful  subject  and  entertained  no  sinister  designs  upon  the 
royal  authority?  Catharine,  when  she  received  the  duke,  was 
pale,  trembling,  and  almost  dismayed.  Her  words  wrere  ambig- 
uous and  uncertain.  She  was  glad,  she  said,  to  see  him  ;  but 
would  have  been  much  more  glad  to  see  him  at  another  time. 
To  which  Guise  replied  with  all  appearance  of  respect,  but  almost 
angrily,  that  he  was  a  faithful  servant  of  the  king,  and  that, 
having  been  informed  of  the  calumnies  circulated  respecting  him- 
self, as  well  as  of  the  mischievous  designs  set  on  foot  against 
religion  and  against  the  honest  and  well-disposed  citizens  of 
Paris,  he  had  come  to  clear  himself  and  to  avert  these  disasters, 
or  else  to  lay  down  his  life  in  the  service  of  the  Church  and  for 
the  common  weal.1  , 

Embracing  the  first  opportunity  afforded,  while  the  courteous 
duke  was  paying  his  respects  to  the  ladies  in  waiting,  Catharine 
de'  Medici  promptly  despatched  one  of  her  gentlemen  ushers, 
Luigi  Davila,  brother  of  the  historian,  to  acquaint  the  king  with 
Guise's  arrival,  and  to  tell  him  of  her  intention  to  bring  him  at 
once  into  his  majesty's  presence.     If  the  unexpected 

Surprise  and  _  -i-i-i  ^  . 

dejection  of  turn  or  events  had  thrown  Catharine  into  conster- 
nation, it  quite  unmanned  her  wretched  son.  The 
messenger  found  him  closeted  with  Bellievre,  Villequier,  and 
one  or  two  others  of  his  servants,  discussing  the  present  situ- 
ation, on  the  supposition  that  Guise  was  full  sixty  miles  distant, 
at  Soissons.  To  find  that  the  duke  was  actually  within  the 
walls  of  Paris,  and  about  to  visit  him  in  the  Louvre,  was  too 
much  for  the  nerves  of  the  Yalois.  He  was  almost  crushed. 
He  could  scarcely  hold  up  his  head,  but  leaned  it  heavily  upon 

1  Davila,  338.  The  history  of  Enrico  Cattarino  Davila  being  at  this  point 
based  upon  the  authority  of  his  elder  brother,  Luigi,  is  of  great  weight,  as  vir- 
tually the  narrative  of  an  eye-witness  of,  and,  to  some  extent,  a  participant  in, 
the  events  related. 


'38  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.        Ch.  VIII 

his  hand  till  it  well-nigh  touched  the  table.  After  anxiously 
questioning  Davila  on  every  point,  he  dismissed  him  with  the 
message  to  the  queen  mother  to  defer  Guise's  visit  as  long  as 
possible.  What  should  he  do  ?  Here  was  a  fine  opportunity 
for  a  good  counsellor  to  come  forward,  had  Henry  possessed 
one.  Such  advice  as  was  at  command,  however,  was  soon  prof- 
fered. Alphonso  Ornano,  colonel  of  the  Corsicans  in  his 
majesty's  army,  a  soldier  of  tried  valor  and  prompt  resolution, 
advocated  summary  action,  and  volunteered  his  own  services. 
Let  the  king  receive  the  Duke  of  Guise  in  the  very  cabinet 
in  which  he  now  is  seated,  and  his  faithful  servant  promises 
speedily  to  put  the  rebellious  nobleman  out  of  the  way.  A 
churchman  who  held  the  same  views,  the  Abbe  d'Elbene,  fol- 
lowed up  the  suggestion  by  quoting  Scripture :  "  I  will  smite  the 
shepherd,  and  the  sheep  shall  be  scattered/'  But  the  League 
was  too  well  represented  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  king  to 
permit  so  decided  a  measure  to  be  adopted  without  remon- 
strance. The  treacherous  Villequier  and  the  half-hearted  Chan- 
cellor Birague,  not  to  speak  of  Bellievre,  never  a  friend  of 
extreme  resorts,  instantly  opposed  Ornano's  suggestion.  If 
Guise  be  assassinated,  said  they,  the  burghers  of  Paris  will  be 
moved  to  take  immediate  revenge,  and  the  king's  forces  are  in- 
ferior to  those  of  the  League.  In  their  rage  they  might  Dot 
spare  the  monarch  himself,  for  whom  the  castle  of  the  Louvre 
,  would  furnish  no  safe  retreat. 

Between  the  two  courses  Henry  of  Yalois  found  it  difficult 

to  decide.    He  was  not  allowed  much  time  for  deliberation.    In 

the  midst  of  his  irresolution,  Catharine  de'  Medici 

The  duke  .  .  .  .  . 

comes  to  the  arrived,  bringing  with  her  the  cause  or  all  this  anx- 
iety. The  queen,  coming  in  her  sedan,  and  the  duke, 
on  foot,  left  in  the  court  of  the  Louvre  the  crowd  of  sympa- 
thizing citizens  that  had  not  forsaken  Guise  for  a  moment  since 
he  entered  Paris,  and  passed  in  between  close  ranks  of  guards 
whose  commanding  officer  showed  the  Lorraine  chief  scant 
courtesy.  Grillon's  sullen  mien  was  a  poor  augury  of  a  cordial 
welcome  within.  "  I  sent  you  word  that  you  should  not  come.'1 
were  the  first  words  that  greeted  his  ears,  as  he  bowed  low  be- 
fore Henry,  and  the  abrupt  speech  was  accompanied  by  an  angry 


158&  THE  BARRICADES.  39 

glance  which  only  too  clearly  betrayed  the  conflict  of  passions 
rasing  in  the  monarch's  breast.  The  situation  was  ominous, 
but  it  was  too  late  to  retreat.  The  duke  controlled  his  natural 
fears,  and  answered  with  greater  deference  than  he  had  shown 
to  the  queen.  "  I  am  come,  Sire,"  said  he,  "  to  place  myself 
in  the  arms  of  your  majesty's  justice,  in  order  to  clear  myself 
of  the  calumnies  heaped  upon  me  by  my  enemies.  Yet  would 
I  never  have  come,  had  I  been  distinctly  informed  that  your 
majesty  had  commanded  me  to  stay  away."  It  was  the  begin- 
ning of  a  stormy  interview.  The  king,  full  of  passion,  turned 
to  Bellievre,  and  peremptorily  demanded  to  know  whether  he 
had  not  been  instructed  to  warn  Guise  that,  should  he  venture 
to  come  to  Paris,  he  would  be  accounted  the  author  of  all  the 
outbreaks  that  might  ensue.  Then,  when  Bellievre  was  about 
to  answer,  Henry  bade  him  be  silent,  and  turning  to  Guise  ex- 
claimed :  "  I  know  not  that  you  have  been  calumniated  by  any- 
body ;  but  your  innocence  would  have  clearly  appeared  had 
your  coming  produced  no  commotion,  and  had  it  not  inter- 
rupted the  quiet  of  the  government,  as  it  is  likely  to  do."  The 
words  were  an  open  threat.  The  next  thing  might  be  a  signal 
to  Colonel  Alphonso  to  fulfil  his  pledge.  But  again  Catharine 
was  at  hand  to  sap  her  weak  son's  resolution,  by  whispering  to 
him  hints  of  danger,  and  telling  him  wThat  scenes  she  had  wit- 
nessed in  the  streets.  And  the  Duchess  of  Uzes  was  there,  too, 
to  corroborate  the  queen's  statements.  Between  the  words  of 
the  two  women  Henry's  attention  was  diverted,  if  his  anger 
was  not  appeased,  and  Guise  was  permitted  to  avail  himself  of 
the  excuse  of  fatigue  after  his  journey  to  bow  himself  out  of 
the  king's  presence  and  retire  to  his  city  house  in  the  Rue  Saint 
Antoine.  The  duke  had  had  a  narrow  escape.  None  felt  it 
more  than  he,  unless  it  was  Pope  Sixtus,  whose  first  exclama- 
tion, on  receiving  tidings  of  the  duke's  visit  to  the  Louvre,  is 
said  to  have  been :  "  Oh,  the  rash,  the  imprudent  man,  thus  to 
place  himself  in  the  hands  of  a  prince  whom  he  has  treated  with 
such  indignity  !  "  The  pontiff's  next  utterance  was  of  amaze- 
ment at  Henry's  weakness  :  "  Oh,  the  cowardly  prince,  the  poor 
prince,  so  to  have  suffered  the  opportunity  to  slip  through  his 
fingers  for  ridding  himself  of  a  man  who  seems  to  have  been 


40      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cn.  VII L 

born  for  his  ruin !  "  As  for  Guise,  thankful  to  have  escaped 
so  great  a  peril,  he  inwardly  resolved  never  to  expose  himself 
again.  But  to  men  constituted  as  he  was,  danger  lias  a  strange 
fascination,  especially  if  the  danger  be  associated  with  wild 
dreams  of  sovereignty.  The  flame  may  have  singed  them,  and 
the  pain  or  the  apprehension  of  future  ruin  may  have  wrought 
wholesome  but  short-lived  resolutions  tending  to  greater  pru- 
dence ;  but  they  are  pretty  certain  in  the  end  to  return  to  the 
scene  of  their  first  folly,  and  there  to  meet  their  fate  in  the  all- 
consuming  fire. 

Days  of  anxiety  and  ferment  followed.  The  king,  too  late 
discovering  his  mistake,  endeavored  to  regain  firm  possession  of 
the  capital  which  was  fast  slipping  out  of  his  grasp.  The  proc- 
lamation first  issued,  ordering  all  strangers  not  permanently 
residing  in  Paris,  or  detained  there  by  necessary  business,  to 
depart  at  once,  proved,  like  all  similar  proclamations,  an  empty 
form  scarce  worth  the  paper  on  which  it  was  printed.  But 
when,  awaking  to  the  importance  of  the  crisis,  Henry  was  per- 
suaded by  his  advisers  to  introduce  into  the  capital  the  Swiss 
and  French  guards,  hitherto  posted  in  the  neighborhood,  the 
real  struggle  began.  The  "sixteen,"  the  leaders  whom  the  pop- 
ulace had  come  to  regard  as  the  embodiment  of  Catholic  or- 
thodoxy  and  the  conservators  of  the  liberties  of  Paris,  gave 
the  note  of  alarm,  and  instantly  the  whole  city  was  in  commo- 
tion. It  was  reported  that  the  lives  of  Guise  and  of  all  true 
friends  of  the  faith  were  in  danger.  It  was  said  that  no/  the 
humblest  Catholic  was  safe.  Kay,  the  wild  story  was  repeated 
from  mouth  to  mouth  that  a  threat  had  been  dropped  by  a 
leader  of  the  royal  forces  that  the  honor  of  Parisian  wives  and 
daughters  should  atone  for  the  rebellion  of  their  husbands  and 
fathers. 

No  other  city  in  France,  perhaps  no  other  city  of  Christen- 
dom, could  at  this  time  boast  a  population  so  ready  for  revolt. 
The  populace  r°bbery,  and  every  form  of  violence  as  Paris.  It  waf, 
of  Paris.  jn  the  view  of  a  well-informed  contemporary,  the 
place  for  Guise  "  to  execute  his  intended  mischiefs,  being  a  town 
always  affectioned  to  him,  and  swarming  with  multitudes  of 
poor  artisans,  porters,  and  peasants  who,  in  hope  of  impunity 


15SS.  THE  BARRICADES.  41 

and  reward,  are  ready  at  all  times  to  attempt  mutinies,  murders, 
or  any  kind  of  villanies  whatsoever,  if  they  may  but  be  egged 
on,  encouraged,  or  countenanced  by  any  man  of  authority  or 
honor  that  in  such  actions  will  undertake  to  be  their  head  and 
ringleader ;  as  the  miserable  and  more  than  barbarous  massa- 
cre, most  cruelly  executed  in  that  accursed  town,  upon  the  most 
renowned  and  worthy  Admiral  Chatillon  and  sundry  nobles, 
gentlemen,  students,  and  other  men  and  women  of  all  sorts,  so 
they  were  suspected  to  be  of  the  religion,  may  give  sufficient 
testimony."  ' 

The  capital  mistake  of  the  king  is  said  to  have  been  that,  in 
disposing  his  troops  throughout  the  city,  early  in  the  morning 
of  Thursday,  the  twelfth  of  May,  the  Place  Maubert  had  been 
overlooked.  Here,  therefore,  at  a  considerable  distance  from 
the  Louvre,  and  in  the  very  quarter  where  centred  the  most 
unruly  elements,  the  populace  had  the  advantage  of  position, 
and  it  was  impossible  to  dislodge  it.  When  the  royal  troops 
were  sent  to  make  the  fruitless  attempt,  they  found  themselves 
suddenly  confronted  by  a  breastwork  of  such  material  as  a  great 
city  could  readily  supply.  To  proceed  was  out  of  the  question  ; 
to  retreat  was  equally  impracticable,  for  a  similar  barrier  had 
risen  in  their  rear.  Nor  was  this  all.  As  by  magic,  the  system 
of  defence  improvised  by  M.  de  Bois  Dauphin  and  the  students 
of  the  University,  had  spread  over  all  the  chief  streets  of  Pa- 
ris. At  intervals  regularly  marked  out,  of  thirty  paces  each, 
The  day  of  the  tne  wiping  hands  of  men,  women,  and  children  had 
barricades.  erected  a  succession  of  rude  walls,  in  which  barrels 
filled  with  earth,  heavy  timbers  and  logs,  in  short,  whatever 
could  be  laid  hold  of  to  swell  the  size  and  add  to  the  strength 
of  the  structure,  had  been  hastily  heaped  together.  Almost  be- 
fore they  knew  it,  the  Swiss  guards  found  themselves  shut  up 
in  the  Cimitiere  des  Innocents,  the  French  guards  on  the 
bridges,  at  the  Chatelet,  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  and  wherever 

1  "  A  brief  discourse,  containing  the  true  and  certain  manner  how  the  late 
Duke  of  Guise  and  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  his  brother,  were  put  to  death  .  .  . 
for  sundry  conspiracies  and  treasons,  etc.  Written  unto  our  late  Queen  Eliz- 
abeth, by  Sir  Edward  Stafford,  at  that  time  her  ambassador  in  the  court  of 
France."     In  Hard  wick's  State  Papers,  i.  274. 


42      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cu.  VIII. 

else  they  had  been  posted.  To  crown  the  insolent  contempt  of 
royal  authority,  a  barricade  was  thrown  across  the  street  under 
the  very  noses  of  the  king's  own  body-guard,  and  in  sight  of  the 
monarch's  apartments  in  the  Louvre.  The  Swiss,  as  foreign- 
ers and  looked  upon  with  greater  suspicion  by  the  people, 
naturally  fared  worse  than  the  other  royal  troops.  Like  these, 
they  had  been  prevented  by  the  king's  express  orders  from 
using  any  violence.  Now  that  it  was  too  late,  they  found  them- 
selves imprisoned  in  a  narrow  place,  at  the  mercy  of  the  Paris- 
ians, and  were  forced  to  resort  to  prayer  and  entreaty.  Shot  at 
with  arquebuses,  and  struck  by  the  ponderous  stones  that  were 
hurled  upon  their  heads  from  neighboring  windows,  they  could 
only  cry  out  in  broken  French  :  "  Bonne  France,"  "  Miseri- 
corde,"  "  Yive  Guise,"  and  whatever  other  exclamations  might 
be  expected  to  move  the  hard  hearts  of  their  enemies. 

The  moment  had  come  for  the  duke  to  appear  upon  the  scene 
in  his  new  character  of  the  magnanimous  hero.  The  plans  he 
had  laid  had  succeeded  to  perfection.  There  was  no  need  of  ■ 
resort  to  bloodshed,  and  the  signal  which  was  to  have  been 
given,  as  a  last  resort,  by  stroke  of  the  bell  of  the  church  oi  St. 
Jacques  de  la  Boucherie,  was  purposely  withheld.1  All  the  morn- 
ing he  had  carefully  remained  within  the  barred  gates  of  his 
house,  not  far  distant  from  the  Bastile.  There  Luigi  Davila,  sent 
by  Catharine  de'  Medici,  ostensibly  to  carry  a  complimentary 
message,  but  in  reality  as  a  spy  to  ascertain  what  he  was  doing, on 
being  admitted  by  the  wicket  gate,  found  him,  early  that  morn- 
ing, pacing  up  and  down  between  two  long  rows  of  armed  gen- 
tlemen ;  and  Guise  seemed  to  take  gratification  in  satisfying  his 
visitor's  curiosit}'.  lie  led  him  by  the  hand  into  the  adjoining 
garden,  and  enabled  him  to  obtain  a  good  view  of   the  great 


1  "  De  sorte  qu'il  prist  une  autre  resolution  d'essaver  a  faire  faire  barri 
et,  sj  les  clioses  luy  succedoient,  se  gouverner  doucement  ;  synon,  avoit  donno 
signal  que,  au  son  de  la  cloche  Saint  Jacques  de  la  Boucherie.  ils  missent  tout 
a  feu  et  a  sang.  Toutesfois  il  n'en  fut  pas  besoin,  car  tout  leur  rioit,  ouvroit 
les  bras,  detestoit  le  Roi  et  les  siens,  et  ne  parloit  que  de  se  saisir  de  sa  per- 
sonne  ;  ce  quits  differoient  au  lendeniain. "  Memoires  de  Claude  Groulart. 
Premier  President  du  Parlenient  de  Xorniandie  (Collection  Mich&ud  et  Pou- 
joulat),  554. 


1588.  THE  BARRICADES.  43 

quantity  of  weapons  stacked  there,  as  well  as  of  the  soldiers 
who  swarmed  in  the  lower  rooms  of  the  house.  It  was  four 
o'clock  when  the  duke,  moved  thereto,  it  is  said,  by  the  king's 
earnest  prayer,  conveyed  to  him  by  Marshal  Biron,  deigned  to 
take  notice  that  something  like  a  revolution  was  actually  in 
progress,  and  sallied  forth  from  his  peaceful  home.  He  was 
dressed  in  a  slashed  doublet  of  white  satin,  and  wore  the  larore 
hat  he  so  much  affected ;  but  he  carried  no  arms,  and  some- 
what ostentatiously  held  a  short  stick  in  his  hand  in  lieu  of  a 
sword.  The  enthusiasm  of  preceding  days  was  repeated  when 
he  appeared.  Some  were  loud  in  proclaiming  their  desire  to 
have  him  anointed  king  at  once.  "  We  must  not  trifle  away 
the  time  any  longer.  We  must  take  Monsieur  to  Rheims  "  *— 
was  a  significant  cry  that  greeted  his  not  unwilling  ears,  mingled 
with  the  universal  "Vive  Guise!"  But  the  duke,  thinking 
that  his  hour  was  not  fully  come,  put  on  an  air  of  displeasure, 
and  said :  "  My  friends,  it  is  enough.  Gentlemen,  it  is  too 
much.     Cry,  rather,  '  Yive  le  Roi !     Long  live  the  king  ! '  " 

Under  such  circumstances  did  Guise,  now  real    master  of 
Paris,  go  to  the  rescue  of  the  French  guards  and  of  the  unfor 
tunate  Swiss,  whom  he  ordered  to  be  escorted  to  the  gates  of 
the  Louvre,  and  whose  arms  he  restored  to  them. 

Meanwhile,  Catharine,  to  whom  tears  were  about  as  natural 
as  falsehood  and  intrigue,  had  scarcely  dried  her  eyes  all  the 
time  she  sat  at  dinner.2    Toward  night,  her  old  fond 

Catharine 

negotiates  in  ness  for  negotiation  overcoming  the  pangs  of  gout, 
she  set  out  to  try  her  skill  with  Guise.  It  was  out  of 
the  question  to  ride  in  her  coach,  so  she  went  in  a  sedan  ;  but 
it  took  two  hours  for  her  bearers  to  go  the  trifling  distance  that 
intervened  between  the  palace  and  the  rival  establishment  in 
the  Bue  Saint  Antoine.  At  every  barricade  a  halt  must  be 
made,  and  the  citizen  defenders  positively  refused  to  permit  an 

1  "  II  ne  faut  plus  lanterner ;  il  faut  mener  Monsieur  a  Rheims."  Lestoile, 
i.  250. 

2  "  Bien  les  Roynes  en  furentelles  grandement  estonnees,  et  singulierement 
la  Royne  Mere,  laquelle  tout  le  long  de  son  disner.  ne  fit  que  pleurer  a  grosses 
larmes."  Amplification  des  particularitez,  etc.,  in  Mcmoires  de  la  Ligue- 
ii.  347. 


44:      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cn.  VIIL 

opening  larger  than  would  barely  allow  the  sedan  to  pass 
through.  The  queen  mother  found  Guise  elated  with  sue 
full  of  complaints  against  the  king,  exorbitant  in  his  demands. 
He  must  be  appointed  lieutenant-general  of  the  kingdom,  with 
as  ample  powers  as  his  father  had  enjoyed  after  the  Tumult  of 
Amboise.  The  appointment  must  be  confirmed  in  a  see 
of  the  states  general  to  be  called  in  the  city  of  Paris.  Henry  of 
Navarre  and  the  Bourbon  princes  that  adhered  to  him  must, 
as  heretics,  be  declared  incapable  of  succeeding  to  the  crown. 
The  taxes  must  be  reduced.  Epernon  and  his  brother  La  Va- 
lette,  Marshals  Retz  and  Biron,  Monsieur  d'O,  and  Alphonso 
Ornano,  must  lose  their  offices  and  be  dismissed  from  the  court. 
The  king  must  give  up  his  famous  body-guard  of  the  "  Forty- 
five"  gentlemen.  The  Duke  of  Aumale  must  be  governor  of 
Picardy,  the  Duke  of  Nemours  of  Lyons,  the  Duke  of  Elbeuf 
of  Normandy.  Mayenne  must  become  admiral.  La  Chastre 
must  have  Biron's  place  as  marshal.  Six  cities,  to  be  named  by 
the  chief  men  of  the  League,  must  be  given  them  for  their 
security.  Such  were  some  of  the  modest  requests  of  Henry  of 
Guise. 

The  queen  mother  argued  and  remonstrated,  but  did  not  ab- 
solutely reject;  then  returned  to  the  Louvre  in  the  same  te- 
dious manner  in  which  she  had  come.  The  next  day,  Friday, 
the  thirteenth  of  May,  after  a  sleepless  night  taken  up  with  a 
protracted  discussion  between  the  advocates  of  concession  and 
of  resistance  in  the  royal  council,  the  indefatigable  qi 
mother  was  again  at  the  duke's  house.  She  displayed  no  im- 
patience, but  went  over  the  same  subject,  taking  up  item  after 
item  of  the  League's  alleged  grievances  and  demands.  Never 
had  she  seemed  to  be  less  in  a  hurry,  or  less  irritated  by  the 
duke's  increasing  obstinacy.  Unfortunately  the  quiet  conver- 
sation was  interrupted  by  the  abrupt  entrance  of  M.  de  Mayne- 
ville,  a  gentleman  who,  as  we  have  seen,  had  had  much  expe- 
rience in  carrying  messages  for  the  League.  Leaning  over 
Guise's  shoulder,  he  whispered  the  fatal  news  that  the  King  of 
France,  whose  affairs  the  duke  and  the  queen  mother  were  now- 
discussing,  believing  him  to  be  a  captive  in  the  hands  of  his 
enemies,  had  quietly  slipped  out  of  Paris,  and  had  full  two 


1588.  THE  BARRICADES.  45 

hours'  start  on  the  way  to  the  city  of  Chartres.  Never  had  es- 
cape been  more  neatly  effected.  The  Duke  of  Guise,  prepared 
for  almost  everything  else,  was  quite  unprepared  for  this.  The 
queen  mother  was,  to  all  appearance,  equally  surprised,  protest- 
ing that  her  son  had  not  said  a  word  to  her  of  any  intention  to 
flee.  "  Ah,  Madam,"  said  Guise,  with  a  loud  voice,  "  I  am  alto- 
gether undone !  While  your  majesty  has  been  detaining  me 
here,  the  king  has  gone  away  to  effect  my  ruin." 

The  tidings  were  well  founded.  Henry  of  Yalois  had  left 
the  castle  of  the  Louvre  under  the  pretext  of  taking  a  little 
walk,  as  he  was  accustomed  to  do,  in  the  neighboring  garden  of 
Henr-of  tne  Tuileries.  On  the  present  occasion,  however,  he 
XomhircaP<iS  nac^  not  tarried  to  expend  any  inopportune  admira- 
tal-  tion  upon  the  rustic  works  and  grottoes  so  skilfully 

constructed  by  the  art  of  Palissy  the  potter.  He  had,  instead, 
hastily  donned  a  riding  suit,  and  mounted  a  horse  standing 
ready  saddled  for  him.  A  minute  more,  and  he  had  cantered 
out  of  the  new  gate  of  the  gardens,  accompanied  by  sixteen 
horsemen  and  followed  by  twelve  footmen.  It  was  the  only 
outlet  of  Paris  which  the  Duke  of  Guise  had  left  unprotected. 

Pursuit  was  useless.  By  the  time  the  vigilant  guards  of  the 
Louvre  learned  of  their  prisoner's  escape,  he  had  crossed  the 
bridge  of  Saint  Cloud,  and  was  out  of  harm's  reach.  That 
night  he  slept  at  Rambouillet,  and  the  next  day  in  Chartres. 
The  king  had  saved  the  heads  of  the  League  the  trouble  of 
carrying  into  effect  their  threat  of  going  to  get  Friar  Henry  in 
his  Louvre  and  carrying  him  off  to  the  monastery.1  It  was 
evident  that  this  was  not  exactly  what  Mendoza  and  his  fellow- 
conspirators — French  and  Spanish — had  anticipated.  The  press- 
ure of  the  Parisians  had  brought  Guise  to  the  city  before  mat- 
ters were  quite  ripe  for  the  execution  of  his  plans  both  as  to 
Epernon's  assassination  and  as  to  Henry's  arrest  and  virtual  de- 
thronement. 

Meantime  Guise,  desirous  of  giving  dignity  to  his  newly  ac- 
quired lordship  of  Paris  in  the  eyes  of  foreign  powers,  bethought 


1  "Ne  tenoient  autre  langage  (i.e.,  the  preachers  and  the  Count  of  Brissac) 
si  non  qu'il  faloit  aller  querir  frere  Henri  dans  son  Louvre."     Lestoile,  i  251. 


46      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  VIH 

him  of  no  better  way  than  to  proffer  his  kind  offices  to  the 
ambassador  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  This  was  none  other  than 
Sir  Edward  Stafford,  a  high-spirited  gentleman  and  a  staunch 
staunch prot-  Protestant.  How  keenly  sensitive  he  was  in  both 
th^EngUs'h  capacities,  is  seen  from  an  incident  that  had  hap- 
ambassador.  peneci  about  four  years  before  the  events  now  referred 
to.  In  1584,  as  Corpus  Christi  approached,  he  was  determined 
that  the  English  Embassy  should  display  no  drapery  in  honor 
of  a  day  consecrated  to  the  exaltation  of  the  lloman  Catholic 
doctrine  of  Transubstantiation.  "  I  have  had  somewhat  to  do 
this  '  Fete  Dieu,' "  he  wrote  to  the  queen's  secretary,  "  for  the 
keeping  of  my  house  unhanged,  as  this  bearer  can  tell  you  ; 
but  at  the  length  I  had  the  victory,  and  would  not  permit  them 
to  hang  an  inch  of  anything  that  belonged  to  me."  '  It  tunica 
out  in  a  few  days,  however,  that  the  ambassador  was  mistaken 
in  supposing  that  the  French  had  renounced  their  purpose.  In 
vain  did  Stafford  protest  that  for  the  king  to  insist  was  deroga- 
tory to  the  queen's  dignity  and  "  a  breach  of  the  privilege  of 
her  ambassador ;  "  the  curt  reply  was  "  that  within,  the  house 
is  free,  without,  the  house  is  the  king's."  It  was  a  time  for 
prompt  action.  Not  to  be  forced  in  his  dignity  or  his  con- 
science, Stafford,  the  day  before  the  occurrence  of  the  church 
festival,  "gave  over  the  house"  to  the  owner,  and  removed  his 
quarters  to  "  a  little  lodging  in  a  garden,"  where  no  conformity 
with  the  hateful  practice  could  be  exacted  of  him,  meanwhile 
declaring,  "  Never  will  I  come  into  the  other  again,  that  they 
may  not  say  they  have  hung  the  English  ambassador's  house 
while  I  am  in  it,  which  is  all  I  can  do  till  I  know  her  majesty's 
pleasure."2  Such  was  the  man  with  whom  the  Duke  of  Guise 
determined,  if  possible,  to  ingratiate  himself. 

In  the  duke's  name  Count  Brissac  presented  himself  at  Sir 
Edward  Stafford's  house,  and  requested  him  to  give  himself  no 
uneasiness  at  what  occurred  outside,  but  by  no  means  to  go  into 
the  streets,  and  promised  him  the  duke's  gracious  protection. 


1  Sir  Edward  Stafford  to  the  secretary,  May  23,  1584,  Murdin's  State  Papers. 
402. 

2  Same  to  same,  May  29,  1584,  ibid.,  4C4,  405. 


15S8.  THE   BARRICADES.  47 

"  If,"  replied  Stafford,  "  I  were  a  private  individual,  I  should  at 
once  go  and  throw  myself  at  Guise's  feet,  humbly  thanking  him 
sir  Edward  TOr  uis  courtesy.  But  being  here,  at  the  king's  court, 
dSestteprb-  m  behalf  °f  tne  queen  my  mistress,  I  neither  can  nor 
5)uke0of0fthe  wil1  liave  otner  safeguard  than  the  king's." 
Guise.  c<  «plie  j)uke  of  Quige  »  contjnue(j  Brissac,  "  did  not 

come  to  Paris  to  execute  any  enterprise  against  the  king  his  mas- 
ter. He  is  simply  acting  on  the  defensive.  There  was  a  great 
conspiracy  on  foot  against  him  and  the  city  of  Paris.  The 
Hotel  de  Ville  and  other  buildings  are  full  of  gallows  on  which 
the  king  intended  to  hang  great  numbers  of  the  citizens  and 
others.  The  duke  begs  you  inform  the  queen  your  mistress  of 
all  these  things,  in  order  that  everybody  may  understand  them." 

"  I  shall  be  glad,"  replied  Sir  Edward,  "  to  believe  it  so.  To 
speak  frankly,  what  is  now  occurring  in  Paris  will  be  thought 
very  strange  and  very  ill  by  all  the  princes  of  Christendom. 
No  cloak,  be  it  never  so  gaudily  worked,  could  conceal  the  de- 
formity of  a  revolt  against  one's  sovereign.  If  there  were  so 
many  gallows  prepared,  we  shall  more  easily  believe  the  fact 
when  the  gallows  are  placed  upon  exhibition.  But  granted  the 
truth  of  the  assertion,  it  is  a  hateful  and  insufferable  presump- 
tion for  a  subject  to  seek  by  force  to  stand  in  the  way  of  his 
sovereign's  administration  of  justice.  I  shall  notify  the  queen 
as  promptly  as  possible  of  everything  you  tell  me,  but  it  is  no 
part  of  my  commission  to  convey  to  her  the  views  of  the  Duke 
of  Guise.  The  queen  my  mistress  is  wiser  than  I  am,  and  will 
believe  and  judge  as  may  seem  good  to  her." 

Losing  his  temper  the  count  began  to  bluster.  "  The  people 
of  Paris  bear  you  ill-will,"  said  he,  "  because  of  the  cruelty 
which  the  Queen  of  England  exercised  against  the  Queen  of 
Scotland."  Here  the  ambassador,  as  in  duty  bound,  interrupted. 
"  Stop  there,  sir,  at  the  word  '  cruelty.'  An  act  of  merited  jus- 
tice is  never  properly  called  cruelty.  Moreover,  I  do  not  be- 
lieve that  the  people  have  any  spite  against  me,  as  you  say. 
Why  should  they  ?  I  am  here  in  a  public  capacity,  and  have 
never  wronged  any  one." 

"  But  have  you  not  arms  ?  "  said  Brissac. 

"  If  you   asked   me  as  having   formerly   been   an   intimate 


48      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  VIIL 

friend  of  your  uncle,  Marshal  Cosse,  perhaps  I  might  tell  you, 
but  being  what  I  am  1  shall  tell  you  nothing  about  it." 

"  You  will  be  visited  by  and  by,  for  it  is  believed  that  you 
have  arms,  and  there  is  danger  that  force  will  be  used." 

"  I  have  two  doors  to  this  house,"  replied  Stafford.  "  I  shall 
close  and  defend  them  so  long  as  I  shall  have  the  ability ;  that, 
at  least,  I  may  show  the  whole  world  that  the  law  of  nations 
has  been  unjustly  violated  in  my  person." 

"  But  tell  me,  as  a  friend,  have  you  arms  ?  " 

66  Since  you  ask  me  as  a  friend,  I  will  tell  you  as  a  friend.  If 
I  were  here  as  a  private  man,  I  should  have  them ;  but  being 
an  ambassador,  I  have  no  other  arms  than  right  and  public 
faith." 

"  I  beg  that  you  will  have  your  doors  closed,"  said  Brissac  in 
conclusion. 

"  I  must  not  do  it,"  was  Stafford's  final  rejoinder.  "  The 
house  of  an  ambassador  must  be  open  to  all  comers.  Besides, 
I  am  not  in  France  to  sojourn  in  Paris  alone,  but  near  the  king, 
wherever  he  may  be."  J 

There  was  no  disguising  the  fact  that  the  abrupt  flight  of 

Henry  of  Valois  had  seriously  disarranged  the  League's  plans. 

Once  away  from  the  dangerous  capital,  he  had  a  fresh 

The  League  /  i  •  i         .  >i  , 

entrenches  it-  opportunity  to  assert  his  authority.     Great  was  the 

self  in  Paris  tit/  •/ 

disappointment  of  the  Parisians,  who  spared  no  pains 
to  stigmatize  his  majesty's  departure  as  the  disgraceful  sequel 
of  the  conspiracy  of  the  Duke  of  fipernon  and  other  secret  par- 

1  "  L'ambassadeur,  personnage  eloquent  et  doue  de  grande  prudence,  fit  a 
Brissac  et  a  Ligue  la  lecjon  qui  leur  appartenoit,"  etc.,  says  the  author  of  the 
Recueil  des  choses  memorables.  See  the  conversation  reproduced  at  length 
in  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  350,  351.  On  the  affair  of  the  Barricades  con- 
sult Davila  (book  ix.),  336-347  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  (book  90),  185-195  ;  Agrippa 
d'Aubigne,  iii.  72-75  ;  Lestoile,  i.  249-252  ;  Lettres  d'Etienne  Pasquier  (Edit. 
Feugere),  ii.  304-310 ;  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  337,  338,  and  346-350 ; 
Journal  d'un  cure  ligueur  (Jehan  de  la  Fosse),  211-214  ;  Recueil  des  choses 
memorables,  660-2 ;  Histoire  de  la  journee  des  Barricades  de  Paris  (writ- 
ten by  a  member  of  the  League),  MS.  printed  in  Cimber  et  Danjou,  Archives 
curieuses,  xi.  365-410 ;  Histoire  tres  veritable  de  ce  qui  est  advenu  en  ceste 
ville  de  Paris  depuis  le  vii.  May,  1588,  etc.  (ascribed  to  Sainct-Yon,  an 
"•echevin"  of  Paris),  reprinted,  ibid.,  xi  325-350;  Cavriana  to  Serguidi, 
May  13,  1588,  in  Negociations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  780,  781. 


158&  THE  BARRICADES.  49 

tisans  of  the  heretical  Henry  of  Navarre.  "  In  order  to  cast 
the  king  quite  down  from  the  height  of  his  reputation,  they 
have  counselled  him  to  betake  himself  shamefully  to  night,  and 
to  forsake  his  palace  under  color  of  going  to  the  Tuileries."  1 
So  wrote  the  seditious  burghers  of  Paris  in  letters  that  were 
intended  to  excite  everywhere  throughout  France  a  revolt 
similar  to  their  own.  Meanwhile  they  took  good  care,  under 
Guise's  skilful  direction,  to  entrench  themselves  well  against 
any  possible  attack.  The  Swiss  guards  had  been  permitted  to 
follow  the  king,  and  the  city  was  placed  under  charge  of  men 
in  whom  the  League  could  safely  trust.  The  coffers  of  the 
royal  exchequer  were  carefully  sealed  up — so  said  Stafford — 
after  their  contents  had  been  no  less  carefully  appropriated." 
On  Saturday,  the  day  subsequent  to  the  king's  flight,  the  Bas- 
tile,  after  a  brief  show  of  resistance  made  by  the  officers  in  com- 
mand, surrendered  at  discretion.  Two  or  three  days  later  the 
strong  castle  of  Vincennes  imitated  its  example.  Some  of  the 
municipal  officers,  too  loyal  to  join  in  the  general  revolt,  made 
their  escape.  The  highest  of  their  number,  the  "  prevot  des 
marchands,"  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Leaguers  at  the  capture 
of  the  Bastile,  and  was  reserved  to  be  tried  for  treason.  On 
the  following  Wednesday  these  magistrates,  together  with  the 
u  procureur  de  ville,"  atoned  for  their  attachment  to  their  law- 
ful sovereign  by  being  solemnly  deposed  from  office.  An 
assembly  of  the  citizens  proceeded  at  once  to  fill  their  places 
with  men  of  an  entirely  different  stripe.3  Paris  was  firmly 
under  control  of  the  League,  whose  sway — whether  beneficent 
or  otherwise,  time  would  show — was  to  last  full  five  years. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  relate  in  detail  the  events  that 
succeeded — events  disgraceful  in  themselves  and  having  no  im- 

1  "  Afin  de  jetter  le  Roy  du  haut  en  bas  de  sa  reputation,  ils  l'auroient  con- 
seille  de  s'enfuir  honteusement, "  etc.  Letter  of  the  Parisians,  above  quoted, 
of  May  18,  1588,  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  370. 

2  The  Duke  of  Guise  "  sealed  up  the  king's  coffers  of  his  exchequer,  but 
took  out  the  money  first  "  A  brief  discourse,  etc.,  written  unto  our  late 
Queen  Elizabeth,  by  Sir  Edward  Stafford  ;  in  Hardwick's  State  Papers,  i.  276. 

3  See  the  contemporary  pamphlet  "  Histoire  tres  veritable  de  ce  qui  est 
advenu  en  ceste  ville  de  Paris,"  in  Cimber  et  Danjou,  Archives  curieuses, 
xi.  350. 

Vol.  II.— 4 


50  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.        Cn.  VIII. 

mediate  bearing  upon  the  fortunes  of  the  Huguenots.     Merry- 
hearted  Henry  of  Navarre,  with  anxieties  enough  resting  upon 
him  to  crush  a  man  of  a  less  sanguine  temperament,  received 
in  far  distant   Guyenne  the  news  of  the  Barricades 

Henry  of  Na-  _       1  1  •    i  r  ,  _  ^ 

varre-s  satis-   and  the  sorry  plight  of  his  cousin,  Ilenrv  of  \  alois. 

faction.  _  -  L     ■,  .  ,  ,  .  ',     «  , 

for  a  tew  moments  he  said  notlnng,  startled  by  the 
strange  turn  of  affairs,  and  possibly  musing  upon  the  effect 
which  the  king's  mishap  might  have  upon  the  unequal  contest 
in  which  the  Huguenots  were  engaged.  Then  he  sprang  up 
gayly  from  the  grass  where  he  had  been  lying,  and  gave  ex- 
pression to  his  pent-up  feelings  in  the  cheery  exclamation : 
"  They  have  not  yet  caught  the  Bearnais."  It  may  well  be 
that  some  secret  satisfaction  mingled  with  Navarre's  compassion. 
His  opponent,  and  the  relentless  enemy  of  Protestantism,  a 
prince  more  wedded  to  Catholicism  than  any  one  of  the  ad- 
herents of  the  League,  had  received  at  the  hands  of  that  highly 
orthodox  and  professedly  holy  association  such  treatment  ae 
ordinarily  reserved  for  Huguenots  alone.  Surely  it  would  seem 
that  the  irony  of  fate  could  no  further  go/ 

If  Guise  and  Mendoza  felt  deep  chagrin  when  they  found 
that  the  opportunity  to  seize  the  king's  person  had  escaped 
them,  Henry  of  Yalois  himself  was  doomed  to  equal  disappoint- 
ment at  Chartres.  He  had  confidently  counted  upon  a  revul- 
sion in  his  favor.  The  Parisians,  he  imagined,  could  not  fail 
to  repent  of  their  misdeeds,  and  would  speedily  be  suing  for 
pardon  at  his  hands.  Instead  of  which,  the  heads  of  the  League 
had  no  trouble  in  making  them  believe  more  implicitly  than 
ever  the  story  that  the  king  had  intended  first  to  garrison  and 
then  to  sack  the  city.  Finding  that  Henry  was  not  stirred  up 
to  manly  action  even  by  the  indignities  of  which  he  had  of  late 
been  the  recipient,  Guise  and  his  party  quickly  recovered  their 
courage.  A  king  too  senseless  or  too  cowardly  to  resent  an  in- 
sult could  be  braved  with  impunity. 


1  "lis  ne  tiennent  pas  encore  le  Bearnois."     Lestoile,  i.  '-2.V.2. 

2  "  Lentreprinse  que  la  Ligue  a  voulu,  ces  jours  passes,  faire  sur  le  Roy, 
qui  est  plus  catholique  que  pas  un  d'icelle.  Toutesfois  vous  voyez  si  on  s 
laisse  de  le  traicter  en  huguenot . "  Henry  of  Navarre  to  Madame  de  Fonte- 
vrault,  May,  1588,  Lettres  missives,  ii.  378,  370. 


1588.  THE  BARRICADES.  51 

Intelligent  foreigners  versed  in  history,  looking  dispassion- 
ately at  the  actual  situation  of  France,  were,  indeed,  at  no  loss 
to  surest  different  methods  by  which  Henry  could, 

How  Paris 

might  be        as  they  thought,  easily  brino;  his  rebellious  capital  to 

punished.  .  .      J  ?T-i  r  ~n       • 

its  knees,  lie  might  remove  from  Fans  to  some 
other  place  the  court  of  parliament,  the  chamber  of  accounts, 
and  the  great  body  of  financial  officers  through  whose  hands 
passed  the  tribute  of  the  provinces.  It  was  calculated  that  he 
would  thus  destroy  the  means  of  support  of  more  than  eighty 
thousand  persons  who  were  directly  dependent  for  their  daily 
bread  upon  these  three  classes  of  magistrates.1  He  might  pro- 
nounce invalid  all  decisions  of  legal  tribunals,  save  those  of  the 
parliament  thus  transferred.  He  might  declare  Guise  and  all 
his  followers  to  be  rebels.  He  might  besiege  Paris,  and  com- 
pel it  to  return  to  its  allegiance  by  cutting  off  the  supply  of 
food  that  came  down  on  the  rivers  Seine  and  Marne.2 

But  Henry  of  Yalois  had  as  yet  formed  no  manly  resolution. 
He  still  fancied  that  he  could  regain  his  much-coveted  ease  with- 
The  king's  ou^  a  resort  to  extremities.  So  when  the  Parliament 
weak  protest.  0f  parjs  deputed  some  of  its  members  to  proffer  ex- 
cuses for  what  had  been  done  at  the  capital,  his  tone  was  that 
of  a  whining  child  rather  than  that  of  a  man.  He  prated  about 
the  fondness  he  had  shown  for  the  city,  and  the  great  benefits 
it  had  derived  from  his  residence  there,  which  had  been  more 
protracted  than  that  of  any  one  of  the  last  ten  occupants  of  the 
throne  of  France.  He  actually  entered  into  a  justification  of 
his  actions  and  purposes,  treating  the  calumnies  of  Guise  as  if 
they  had  been  the  true  motives  of  the  revolt.  He  did,  it  is 
true,  mildly  suggest  the  damage  he  might  do  to  the  trade  of 
Paris  by  taking  away  the  courts  of  judicature  and  the  university  ; 
reminding  them  of  the  disastrous  consequences  which  had  re- 
sulted in  the  year  1579 — the  year  of  the  great  plague — from  the 
absence  of    the  king   and  the  suspension  of   parliament.     So 


1  "  Perche  da  questi  tre  magistrate  sono  nodriti  e  mantenuti  in  Parigi  piu 
che  ottanta  mila  personi."  I  do  not  vouch  for  the  accuracy  of  Cavri ana's 
calculation. 

-  Cavriana  to  Serguidi,  May  13,  1588,  Negociations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  782. 


52  THE  HUGUENOTS   AND  HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.        Ctt  VIII. 

utterly  prostrate  was  business  at  that  time  that  men  played  at 
quoits  in  the  streets  of  the  capital.  He  had  something  to  say 
also  of  irritated  patience  turning  into  fury,  and  of  what  a  king 
offended  may  do.  But  he  soon  relapsed  into  his  apologetic  atti- 
tude, lie  had  ever  used  mildness  and  not  severity.  "  I  am  no 
usurper,"  said  he,  "but  a  legitimate  king  descended  from  a  race 
that  has  always  ruled  by  gentleness.  And  as  to  making  an  ex- 
cuse of  religion,  that  is  a  mere  fable.  Some  other  path  than  that 
must   be  taken.     There  is  not  in  the  world  a  more 

His  undimin-     /^  .  , 

ished  hatred    Catholic  prince  than  1  am,  nor  one  who  so  strongly 

of  heresy. 

desires  the  extirpation  of  heresy.  My  actions  and  my 
life  have  sufficiently  testified  this  to  my  people.  I  would  that 
it  had  cost  me  an  arm,  so  that  the  last  heretic  were  here  in  a 
painting  upon  the  walls  of  this  room."  ' 

The  delegation  of  parliament  had  been  sent  through  the 
persuasions  of  Catharine  de'  Medici,  who,  remaining  in  Paris 
after  her  son's  flight,  seemed  to  have  discovered  too  late  that 
her  intrigues  had  gone  too  far,  and  that  she  must  lend  her  sup- 
port to  Henry  of  Valois  unless  she  wished  to  see  his  complete 
overthrow.  But  the  language  of  the  king  to  others  was  a.-  de 
ficient  in  force  as  his  address  to  the  friendly  judges.  It  w 
just  recompense  of  his  timidity  that  the  very  acts  by  mean.-  <>f 
which  he  strove  to  curry  favor  with  the  people  were  interpreted 
as  additional  proofs  of  pusillanimity  and  only  gave  strength 
to  his  enemies.  Thus,  under  guise  of  affording  relief  to  the 
greatly  burdened  people,  Henry  revoked  on  a  single  day  thirty- 
six  of  the  edicts  of  preceding  years  imposing  extraordinary 
taxes.  He  gained  nothing  thereby  but  the  reputation  of  a 
poltroon  who  has  not  the  courage  to  maintain  the  ground  he 
has  taken. 

The  success  of  Guise  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  The  loyal 
servants  of  the  crown,  who  would  have  been  strong  enough  im- 

1  "  C'est  un  compte  (conte)  de  parler  de  religion,  il  faut  prendre  un  autre  chi- 
min. II  n'y  a  au  monde  prince  plus  Catholique,  ni  qui  desire  tant  ['extirpation 
de  l'heresie  que  moy :  mes  actions  et  ma  vie  l'ont  assez  tesmoigne  a  mon  peo- 
ple. Je  voudrois  qu'il  m'eust  couste  un  bras,  et  que  le  dernier  heretique 
feust  en  peinture  en  ceste  chambre.''  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  oOS  ;  Recueil 
des  choses  meniorables,  667  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  vbk.  91)  211,  212. 


1588.  THE  EDICT  OF   UNION.  53 

der  other  circumstances  to  secure  a  brilliant  victory  over  the 
League,  were  at  too  great  a  disadvantage.     The  royal  commis- 
sioners sent  out  to  counteract  the  efforts  of  the  con- 
Discourage - 

mentofthe     spirators   in  the  provinces   met  with    some   success. 

king  s  loyal         ±  * 

subjects.  Among  them  the  historian  De  Thou,  who  visited  Nor- 
mandy, did  good  service.  But  the  weakness  of  the  king  ruined 
everything.  lie  had  not  even  the  moral  force  to  stand  by  his 
old  favorite  Epernon,  and  Epernon's  brother  La  Yalette,  whose 
inordinate  influence  at  court  had  been,  and  was  still,  one  of  the 
chief  grounds  of  complaint.  He  made  no  great  opposition  when 
Epernon,  perceiving  that  the  royal  support  could  not  be  counted 
upon,  exhibited  some  spirit  and  promptly  resigned  the  gover- 
norship of  the  province  of  Normandy.  He  did,  indeed,  accede 
to  the  duke's  condition  that  the  post  should  not  be  given  to  any 
of  his  enemies,  and  instantly  granted  it  to  the  loyal  Montpen- 
sier  before  any  of  the  Lorraine  princes,  never  over-modest  in 
their  requests,  had  a  chance  to  ask  for  it.  But  he  willingly 
permitted  Epernon  to  leave  court  and  go  to  entrench  himself 
in  Saintonge  and  Angoumois.1  Thus  while  cities  and  towns 
were  passing  over  to  the  League,  and  nobles,  even  those  most 
closely  bound  to  him  by  considerations  of  gratitude,  wTere  play- 
ing into  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  Henry  of  Valois  was  impo- 
tent to  adopt  a  decided  policy.  It  was  clear  that  true  courage 
was,  in  his  case,  out  of  the  question.  Some  cowardly  and 
treacherous  deed,  some  reminiscence  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day, 
might  emanate  from  his  mean  and  contemptible  nature,  but  no 
open  and  valorous  act.  His  perplexity,  however,  was  patent  to 
all  beholders.  Every  one  knew  that  he  had  nobody  to  turn  to. 
His  mother  had  more  than  once  played  him  false. 

Treachery  ot  .  .  r 

the  royal        (Ji  his  council  two-thirds  were  the  pensioners  or  those 
who  sought  his  crown,  and  possibly  his  life.2     Not  a 
word  was  spoken  around  the  board  but  it  was  straightway  re- 
ported to  Guise,  and  Guise  made  good  use  of  his  intelligence. 

1  See,  besides  the  tracts  in  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  etc.,  the  brief  account 
in  De  Thou,  vii.  223. 

8  Agrippa  d'Aubigne  seems  to  be  justified  in  stigmatizing  the  king's  official 
advisers  as  "un  conseil  desquels  les  deux  tiers  tiroient  pension  de  Tautre 
parti.1'     Histoire  universelle,  iii.  77. 


54  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.        Ch.  VIII. 

He  had  been  secretly  advised  by  one  of  the  leading  statesmen 
at  court  that  his  majesty  was  so  terrified  that  he  was  resolved 
to  have  peace  on  any  terms,  and  he  had  been  counselled  by  the 
same  honorable  personage  not  to  abate  a  tittle  of  his  demands. 
So  when  Yilleroy,  the  royal  envoy,  tried,  or  made  a  feint  of 
trying,  to  extort  from  him  some  concessions  in  favor  of  the 
king,  Guise  could  assume  an  insolent  air  and  browbeat  him. 
"  'S  death  !  "  said  he,  "  I  know  very  well  what  you  have  been 
commissioned  to  agree  to.  If,  then,  you  do  not  do  your  duty, 
you  will  repent  of  it."  1  It  was  no  wonder  that  the  poor  king, 
a  miserable  object  enough  under  any  circumstances,  but  now 
doubly  miserable,  distrusted  everybody,  concealed  his  true  de- 
signs from  all  his  court,  and  undertook  to  do  everything  him- 
self. No  wonder,  too,  that  he  was  forced  to  yield  on  every 
point  to  the  League;  for  the  longer  he  waited  the  more  em- 
barrassed was  he,  hearing  daily  some  new  and  signal  act  of  per- 
My.' 

It  was  a  proud  day  for  the  ambitious  Duke  of  Guise  when, 
after  the  news  of  the  Parisian  Barricades  reached  Rome,  Pope 
Guiaeand  Sixtus  the  Fifth  sent  him  a  congratulatory  letter,  in 
popesixtus.  which  the  pontiff  likened  him  to  the  most  valiant  of 
the  Maccabees;  and  when  the  Duke  of  Parma,  in  his  delight 
at  the  triumph  of  the  rebellious  subject  of  the  Very  Christian 
King,  ordered  all  the  chief  cities  of  Flanders  to  be  illuminated 
in  honor  of  the  event,  and,  as  a  token  of  friendship  and  admi- 
ration, sent  to  Guise  his  own  armor.3  But  it  was  a  still  prouder 
day  when  he  compelled  the  unhappy  Henry  of  Valois,  against 
his  will  and  better  judgment,  to  affix  his  signature  to  the  docn- 


1  Dr.  Cavriana,  writing  in  Italian,  lias  inserted  Guise's  very  words  in  his 
letter  of  June,  1588,  to  the  secretary  of  the  Grand  Duke  of  Florence:  "  Mort- 
dieu !  je  scay  bien  ce  que  vous  avez  eu  en  charge  d'accorder  ;  parquoy,  -i 
vous  ne  le  f aites,  vous  vous  repentirez."  Nigociations  avec  la  Toscane.  iv.  793 

'*'  The  words  in  the  text  are  little  more  than  a  paraphrase  of  the  lugubrious 
account  of  Cavriana  (ubi  supra \  who  instances  the  events  at  Havre  de  1 1 
whither  a  relation  of  the  late  Duke  of  Joyeuse  had  lately  been  sent,  who  had 
promised  to  open  the  gates  of  the  town  to  the  king,  but,  having  been  bribed 
by  the  other  side,  admitted  the  king's  enemies. 

3  Lestoile,  i.  26SJ ;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  80,  82. 


158S.  THE   EDICT   OF    UNION.  55 

ment  that  has  come  down  to  posterity  under  the  name  of  the 
"  Edict  of  Union." 

The  importance  of  this  document  in  its  bearing  upon  the 
history  of  the  Huguenots  during  the  next  ten  years  requires 
that  we  should  look  in  detail  at  its  provisions  respecting  the  ex- 
clusive toleration  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion. 

In  the  preamble,  Henry,  by  the  grace  of  God,  King  of  France 

and  Poland,  was  made  to  recognize  his  infinite  obligation  to  the 

Almighty  for  having  trusted  him  with  the  sceptre  of 

The  king  .  ,  -,  i  •  i  i  i  i  - 

forced  to  sign  the  most  noble  realm  in  the  world,  a  realm  wherein 
union,  July,  the  faith  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  had  been  sacredly 
taught  from  the  time  of  the  Apostles,  and  had  been  re- 
ligiously preserved  in  the  hearts  of  kings  and  subjects  by  reason 
of  the  zeal  and  devotion  they  had  entertained  for  the  Holy  Cath- 
lic,  Apostolic,  and  Roman  religion.  In  defence  of  this  re- 
ligion the  king  had  himself  exposed  his  life  when  yet  a  mere 
lad  ;  and  his  resolution  had  grown  with  years,  so  that  it  was 
now,  and  ever  would  be,  more  dear  than  royalty  and  long  life. 
In  order,  therefore,  that  when  called  to  appear  in  the  presence 
of  God,  his  conscience  should  not  accuse  him  of  any  neglect  to 
provide,  as  far  as  it  was  possible  for  the  human  intellect  so  to 
do,  against  any  change  or  alteration  in  the  matter  of  religion 
that  might  ensue  in  France  after  his  decease,  his  majesty  had 
determined  to  unite  all  his  Catholic  subjects  with  himself  for 
the  prosecution  of  the  sacred  undertaking  in  which  they  were 
engaged.  To  this  end,  after  long  consideration,  and  by  advice 
of  the  queen,  his  mother,  and  of  the  princes  and  lords  of  his 
council,  he  proclaimed  the  following  articles,  ten  in  number, 
which  he  commanded  to  be  held  as  "  an  inviolable  and  funda- 
mental law'1  of  his  kingdom. 

In  the  first  article  Henry  renewed  the  oath  taken  at  his  coro- 
nation to  live  and  die  in  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Apostolic  relig- 
its  intolerant  i°n> an(^  honestly  ("  de  bonne  foi ")  to  devote  his  means 
provisions.      anci  even  \^s  ]jfe  ^0  t]ie  extirpation  of  all  schemes  and 

heresies  condemned  by  the  holy  councils,  and  especially  by  the 
Council  of  Trent ;  and  engaged  never  to  make  peace  or  truce 
with  the  heretics,  or  to  issue  any  edict  in  their  favor.  The  sec- 
ond article  imposed  upon  all  the  king's  subjects,  of  whatsoever 


56      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  VIIL 

rank,  the  duty  of  uniting  and  taking  a  similar  oath  for  the  ex- 
termination of  the  heretics.  The  third  prescribed  that  they 
should  also  swear  that,  after  the  death  of  the  present  monarch 
without  issue,  they  would  recognize  as  king  no  prince  who  was 
himself  a  heretic,  or  a  favorer  of  heresy.  By  the  fourth,  Henry 
engaged  to  give  no  military  charge  to  anyone  but  a  Roman 
Catholic,  and  forbade  that  any  person  be  admitted  to  a  judicial 
or  financial  office  without  due  attestation  of  his  orthodoxy  by 
his  bishop,  or,  at  least,  by  a  curate  supported  by  the  testimony 
of  ten  other  persons  of  standing  and  above  suspicion.  In  the 
fifth  article  provision  was  made  for  the  safety  of  the  adherents 
of  the  League,  whom  the  king  pledged  himself  to  protect 
against  the  violence  of  the  heretics  equally  with  those  who  had 
fought  bj7  his  command.  In  the  next  three  articles  the  mon- 
arch's subjects  were  enjoined  to  swear  mutual  protection,  loyalty 
to  the  crown,  and  renunciation  of  all  unions,  leagues,  and  associ- 
ations, whether  within  or  without  the  kingdom,  contrary  to  the 
present  union  and  hostile  to  the  royal  person  and  authority. 
The  ninth  article  declared  all  persons  who  should  refuse  to  sign 
the  union,  or,  having  signed  it,  should  renounce  it,  to  be  guilty 
of  treason,  and  threatened  disobedient  cities  with  the  loss  of  all 
privileges  heretofore  granted  to  them.  Finally,  in  a  long  and 
carefully  worded  article,  the  king  was  made  to  pardon  and  con- 
sign to  oblivion  all  the  recent  acts  of  the  adherents  of  the  League  ; 
especially  such  as  had  occurred  on  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
days  of  May ;  on  the  ground  that  he  had  been  informed  that 
those  acts  had  been  caused  by  nothing  else  than  zeal  for  the 
conservation  and  maintenance  of  the  Catholic  religion.  For 
this  reason  no  punishment  was  ever  to  be  exacted  for  the  levy 
of  troops  and  other  hostile  practices,  and  the  officers  of  justice 
were  strictly  enjoined  from  holding  the  participants  in  the  late 
troubles  to  an  account  for  such  sums  of  the  royal  revenues  as 
had  been  expended  without  warrant  of  law.1 

1  The  text  of  the  Edict  of  Union,  Rouen,  July,  1588,  is  given  in  the  Mo- 
moires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  402-407,  in  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  101-105,  and  in 
Isambert,  Recueil  des  anciennes  lois  francaises,  xiv.  61G-622.  There  are 
summaries  in  the  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  607,  668,  in  De  Thou,  vii. 
237,  etc. 


1588.  THE  EDICT   OF   UNION.  57 

Nor  did  the  public  edict  contain  all  the  humiliation  of  which 
Henry  was  forced  to  taste.  In  the  secret  articles  previously 
The  secret  agreed  upon  by  the  queen  mother,  on  the  one  hand, 
articles.  an(j  Qarciilia]  Bourbon  and  the  Duke  of  Guise,  on  the 
other,  there  were  some  important  points  of  which  shame  or 
policy  dictated  the  omission  in  the  more  formal  document  given 
to  the  world.  Henry  of  Yalois  was  pledged  to  prosecute  the 
work  of  extirpating  the  Protestants,  by  sending  two  "good  and 
strong"  armies  against  them.  It  was  stipulated  that  the  com- 
mand of  that  army  which  was  to  march  into  Dauphiny  should 
be  intrusted  to  Guise's  brother,  the  Duke  of  Mayenne.  His 
majesty  was  very  graciously  permitted  to  select  the  general  who 
should  lead  the  second  army  into  Poitou  and  Saintonge.  It 
may  have  been  intended  as  an  equivalent  for  this  sorry  conces- 
sion to  the  royal  prerogative,  that  the  term  for  which  certain 
cities  had  been  confided  to  the  princes  of  the  League,  by  the 
secret  articles  of  Nemours,  in  1585, '  was  lengthened  by  four 
years ;  so  that  they  were  to  be  restored  in  1594,  instead  of 
1590.  Not  content  with  this,  the  League  secured  the  uninter- 
rupted control  of  such  prominent  places  as  Orleans  and  Bourges, 
by  a  provision  that  gave  to  its  leaders  the  nomination  of  the 
governors  in  case  of  the  death  of  the  present  incumbents.  A 
sop  was  even  thrown  to  the  pope,  by  a  paragraph  which  some- 
what vaguely  and  incoherently  prescribed  that  the  decrees  of 
the  Council  of  Trent  should  be  published  at  the  earliest  mo- 
ment, but  added  that  this  should  be  "  without  prejudice  to  the 
rights  and  authority  of  the  king,  and  the  liberties  of  the  Galli- 
can  Church,  which  shall,  within  three  months,  be  more  amply 
specified  and  elucidated  by  an  assembly  of  certain  prelates  and 
officers  of  parliament,  and  others  whom  his  majesty  shall  depute 
for  this  purpose."  2 

Henry  of  Yalois  signed  his  name  to  the  Edict  of  Union,  in 
the  city  of  Rouen,  with  tears  in   his  eyes,  and  bewailing  his 


1  See  above,  vol.  i.,  chapter  v.,  p.  346. 

9  "Articles  secrets  de  l'union  de  l'an  1588,"  Memoires  de  Nevers,  i.  725- 
729.  Also,  in  Matthieu,  Histoire  des  derniers  troubles  de  France,  liv.  iii., 
fols.  99-101. 


58  THE  HUGUENOTS   AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.        Ch.  VIII. 

misfortune  in  being  constrained,  while  he  secured  his  own  per- 
sonal safety,  to  endanger  his  estate.1     At  the  capital  there  was 
great   glee,  and   lively   congratulations  were   inter - 

Tears  of  tlie 

king,  and  joy  of  changed  over  the  reconciliation  of  the  king  and  the 
"  Catholic  "  princes.  Paris,  ever  gay  and  ever  blood- 
thirsty, had  lately  been  diverting  itself  with  a  harmless  bonfire 
and  with  a  real  auto  da  fe,  both  at  the  expense  of  the  Protest- 
ants. It  had  long  been  a  custom,  on  the  eve  of  Saint  John's  dav, 
to  heap  up  on  one  of  the  public  squares  a  huge  pile  of  wood,  to 
which  the  king  himself,  if  present,  or  otherwise  some  prince  of 
the  blood,  set  fire  with  great  ceremony.  This  year,  in  default 
of  anyone  more  suitable,  the  prevot  des  marchands  kindled  the 
pyre,  over  which,  suspended  from  a  mast,  hung  the  image  of  a 
woman,  clothed  in  armor,  with  a  bloody  right  arm.  A  sword 
was  in  her  right  hand,  a  book  in  her  left,  and  from  her  head 
dangled  serpents  instead  of  tresses  of  hair.  The  personage  rep- 
resented was  unmistakable.  The  burgesses  congratulated  them- 
selves, and  loudly  expressed  their  satisfaction  at  having  burned 
the  English  Jezebel,  at  least  in  effigy,  on  the  streets  of  the  or- 
thodox capital  of  France.2  Quite  different  from  this  puerile 
diversion  was  the  horrible  immolation  of  the  two  Huguenot 
women,  to  which  reference  was  made  on  a  preceding  page.3 

On  the  twenty-first  of  July,  the  edict  was  brought  to  parlia- 
ment, and  was  promptly  approved  and  registered.  The  same 
day — the  eve  of  the  feast  of  Saint  Mary  Magdalene — the  her- 
alds did  their  office  and  made  proclamation  of  it  by  sound  of  the 
trumpet.  Catharine  de'  Medici  and  the  younger  queen,  both 
of  whom  had  remained  in  Paris  from  the  day  of  Henry's  night, 
took  part  in  the  public  demonstrations  of  joy,  and  were  present 
at  the  singing  of  a  grand  Te  Deum  in  the  cathedral  of  Xotre 
Dame.  Salvos  of  artillery  were  fired  on  the  Place  de  Greve, 
the  scene  of  many  a  martyrs  death,  an  appropriate  spot  for  the 
commemoration  of  the  passage  of  an  intolerant  law.4 


1  Lestoile,  i.  260. 

2  Mendoza,  in  a  letter  to  Philip  II.,  dated  June  26,  1588.  is  my  authority  for 
this  incident.     De  Croze,  ii.  348.  3  See  above,  page  9. 

4  Journal  d'un  cure  ligueur  (Jehan  de  la  Fosse),  219. 


15S8.  THE  EDICT   OF   UNION.  59 

No  one  was  more  delighted  at  the  publication  of  the  Edict  of 
Union  than  was  Bernardino  de  Mendoza.     That  careful  ambas- 
sador had  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  times  and 
seasons.     After  long  urging  Guise  forward  in  his 

Satisfaction  of  i  i        i  i 

Remardinode  rebellious  course,  lie  nad,  some  months  since,  in- 
formed his  royal  master,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
that  the  duke  no  longer  needed  the  spur.  Of  late,  if  he  had 
done  anything,  he  had  restrained  the  Frenchman's  excessive 
ardor.  "  We  do  not  press  Mucins  to  break  with  his  Very 
Christian  Majesty,"  Mendoza  wrote  to  Philip,  a  fortnight  or 
so  before  the  conclusion  of  the  terms  of  reconciliation,  "  be- 
cause in  that  case  it  would  be  necessary  to  pay  him  the  balance 
of  three  hundred  thousand  crowns,  and  your  majesty  would  be 
involved  in  the  embarrassment  of  afresh  war,  which  would  not 
only  be  ill-timed  but  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  Mucius  him- 
self/' '  Indeed,  as  it  was,  the  penurious  envoy  of  Spain  found 
his  ingenuity  taxed  to  the  utmost.  It  wTas  difficult  to  frame 
specious  excuses  for  not  satisfying  Guise's  demand  for  the  sum 
just  named.  It  was  difficult  to  induce  him  to  be  content  with 
the  seventy  thousand  crowns  which  he  had  already  received. 
The  duke  complained,  not  without  reason,  of  the  enormous  ex- 
penses in  which  the  present  contest  had  involved  him.  He 
would  have  found  it  quite  impossible  to  meet  them,  but  for  a 
loan  of  two  hundred  thousand  crowns,  for  which  he  was  still 
indebted  to  the  merchants  and  burgesses  of  Paris.  As  for 
himself,  he  soon  betrayed  to  Mendoza,  "by  tone  as  well  as  by 
word,  that  he  had  begun  too  late  to  regret  that  he  had  not  given 
the  rein  to  the  populace  on  the  day  of  the  Barricades,  and 
permitted  the  execution  of  projects  long  since  formed.2 

Meantime  the  Parisians  daily  flocked  to  the  Palais  de  Jus- 
tice to  sign  their  names  to  the  Union  which  was  expected  to  seal 
the  fate  of  the  Huguenots  in  France.3 


1  Mendoza  to  Philip  II.,  June  26,  1588,  De  Croze,  ii.  346. 

2  Mendoza  to  Philip  II.,  July  24,  1588,  De  Croze,  ii.  350,  351. 

3  Cavriana  to  Serguidi,  August  8,  1588,  Negociations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv. 
806,  810. 


60       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

THE  ASSEMBLY  OF  LA  ROCHELLE,  AND  THE  SECOND  STATES  OF 

BLOIS. 

So  far  as  the  Huguenots  as  a  religious  body  were  concerned, 
it  cannot  be  said  that  the  Edict  of  Union  seriously  affected  their 
position  of  standing  before  the  law.  The  Edict  of  Nemours, 
nots^the  promulgated  three  years  before,  had  already  placed 
eye  of  the  law.  them  outside  of  the  body  politic.  It  abrogated  every 
provision  made  for  their  protection,  forbade  their  solemn  wor- 
ship of  God  on  pain  of  death,  allowed  their  ministers  but  a 
single  month  to  escape  from  the  kingdom,  and  gave  such  of  the 
laity  as  refused  to  abjure  but  half  a  year  before  they  too  most 
go  into  exile.  To  this  severe  legislation  the  Edict  of  Union 
could  add  little.  It  could  band  the  Roman  Catholics  of  France 
more  closely  together  in  the  work  of  extirpating  heresy,  by  im- 
posing it  as  a  duty  upon  all  classes,  from  the  king  down  to  the 
humblest  citizen,  and  by  making  apathy  or  refusal  on  the  part 
of  anyone  a  crime  of  the  nature  of  treason.  It  could  make  the 
tenure  of  office  to  depend  on  direct  proof  of  unimpeachable  Cath- 
olicity, rather  than  on  the  absence  of  proof  of  Protestantism. 
It  could  exact  an  oath  from  the  monarch  that  he  would  con- 
clude neither  peace  nor  truce  with  the  Huguenots.  But  this 
was  all.  I  dismiss,  for  the  moment,  the  matter  of  the  succes- 
sion, a  question  upon  which,  indeed,  the  later  edict  gave  no  un- 
certain voice,  by  declaring  all  heretics  and  favorers  of  heresy  to 
be  incapable  of  inheriting  the  crown. 

Taken  together,  the  two  edicts  of  15S5  and  158S  constituted 
the  proscriptive  legislation  for  the  enactment  of  which  the  in- 
tolerant party,  with  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  at  its  head,  had 
for  years  been  longing,  and  which  it  now  hailed  as  the  true  and 
proper  fundamental  law,  to  be  maintained  at  any  cost. 


15SS.  THE  ASSEMBLY   OF   LA   ROCHELLE.  61 

The  Huguenots,  on  the  contrary,  had,  from  this  time  for- 
ward, but  one  object  in  view :  they  would  compel  the  repeal  of 
these  inimical  ordinances.  What  should  be  substituted  was  not 
Husuenot  de-  so  clear«  The  more  sanguine  insisted  upon  the  per- 
SVrjan-  ^ect  freedom  offered  on  paper  by  the  Edict  of  15T6, 
uary,  1562.  as  ^e  011ly  basis  on  which  the  permanent  structure  of 
peace  could  be  reared.  But  the  great  majority  sawT  in  the  pres- 
ent or  prospective  situation  of  affairs  little  chance  of  securing 
so  ideal  a  liberty,  and  were  consequently  content  to  claim  the 
privilege  of  other  edicts  less  liberal  in  theory,  but  practically 
more  valuable  in  their  concessions.  Only  two  royal  enactments 
met  the  requirements  of  the  case.  The  Edict  of  1577,  which 
introduced  the  Peace  of  Bergerac,  had  in  its  favor  the  circum- 
stance that  it  had  been  generally  accepted  as  a  "  modus  vivendi " 
— if  not  the  best  that  could  be  imagined,  yet  the  only  one  which 
had  been  tried  and  found  feasible.  With  some  of  its  features 
modified  by  the  Conference  of  JSerac  and  the  Peace  of  Fleix, 
it  had  for  a  time  bid  fair  to  enjoy  a  permanence  unusual  in  the 
fluctuating  code  of  French  law.  But  the  greater  number  of  the 
Protestants  looked  with  peculiar  affection  upon  an  older  enact- 
ment— the  Edict  of  the  seventeenth  of  January,  1562.  The 
reasons  for  this  preference  are  clearly  set  forth  in  a  remark- 
able petition  presented,  a  few  months  later,  to  Henry  the 
Third  at  the  second  states  of  Blois.  "  We  very  humbly  beg 
your  majesty,"  said  the  Protestants,  "since  you  aim  at  restoring 
everything  in  your  kingdom  to  such  tranquillity  that  your 
memory  may  be  for  ever  happy  and  blessed  of  all,  that  it  may 
please  you  to  restore  to  us  the  liberty  of  the  first  edict,  made 
for  our  relief  so  soon  as  it  wras  discovered  that  we  were  alto- 
gether different  persons,  both  in  the  matter  of  religion  and  in 
questions  of  state,  from  what  we  had  previously  been  calum- 
niously  declared  to  be — the  edict  which,  from  the  name  of  the 
month  in  which  it  wras  published,  has  been  called  the  Edict  of 
January.  We  do  not,  however,  ask  for  that  edict  in  particular 
because  in  it  more  was  granted  to  us  than  in  all  the  others — 
although  this  must  cause  us  so  much  the  more  earnestly  to  de- 
sire it — but  rather  because  that  edict  has  features  that  should 
render  it  agreeable  to  your  majesty  and  to  all  men,  and  to  us, 


62        THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

above  all  the  rest.  For  all  the  other  enactments,  bearing  the  title 
of  edicts  of  pacification,  are  marked  with  the  stamp  of  troubles 
and  of  civil  war,  the  memory  of  which,  whereas  it  ought  to  be 
wholly  abolished,  is  hereby  preserved.  To  this  we  must  add, 
that  to  many  persons  it  has  seemed  that  these  edicts  were 
not  granted  by  your  majesties  of  right  good  will,  but  rather 
snatched  from  your  hands  by  the  violence  of  arms.  But  the 
Edict  of  January  had  no  other  foundation  than  an  inquiry  into 
the  situation,  which  was  at  that  time  peaceable  and  friendly, 
when  in  a  full  assembly,  of  such  a  character  as  we  have  already 
set  forth,  it  pleased  your  majesties  to  assign  to  us  places  where 
we  might,  under  your  protection,  serve  God  according  to  our 
conscience  and  belief.  And  everybody,  Sire,  can  recall  that 
this  Edict  of  January  had  so  satisfied  both  parties,  that  it  would 
have  lasted  until  this  moment,  had  not  the  turbulent  audacity 
of  the  predecessors  of  our  present  enemies  broken  it  with  all  vio- 
lence and  cruelty,  and  thus  laid  the  foundation  of  the  troubles 
which  have  afflicted  us  and  your  entire  realm  of  France."' ' 

Indignant  as  the  Huguenots  were  at  the  continued  persecu- 
tion of  which  they  were  the  victims,  it  can  scarcely  be  said  that 
they  were  surprised  or  disappointed  at  the  publication 

The  Protes- 

tantsnotdis-  of  the  Edict  of  Union.  The  character  of  Henry  of 
Valois  was  no  new  subject  of  study.  If  the  Duke  of 
Guise  believed  himself  to  be  familiar  with  it  to  its  inmost  re- 
cesses, there  were  others,  and  the  King  of  Navarre  \\; 
the  number,  upon  whom  the  opportunities  they  had  enjoyed 
for  watching  him  closely  had  not  been  thrown  away.  They 
were  not  taken  at  unawares  by  the  kings  imbecility,  and 
were,  therefore,  but  little  discouraged  when  they  learned  that 
he  had  yielded  to  all  the  League's  demands.  Meanwhile  they 
were  resolved  to  continue  without  abatement  the  desperate 
struggle  against  the  united  forces  of  the  monarch  and  the  un- 
ruly subjects  whom  he  had  just  united  to  himself.  A  few 
Huguenot  nobles  and  gentlemen,  it  is  said,  found  in  the  new 


1  "Remonstrance  et  reqneste  tres-lmmble  adressee  an  Roy  en  l'asseuiblee 
des  Estats,  par  les  Francois  exilez  pour  la  Religion,  ses  tres-lnunbles  et  tres- 
obeissans subjects."     Reprinted  in  Menioires  de  la  Ligue,  iii.  149,  150. 


15S8.  THE  ASSEMBLY   OF  LA  ROCHELLE.  (33 

edict  an  occasion  for  abandoning  what  appeared  to  them  to  be  a 
forlorn  hope  ;  but  the  number  of  such  persons  was  insignificant 
in  comparison  with  the  steadfast,  or  even  with  those  who  had 
yielded  after  the  Edict  of  Nemours. 

Incidents  in  themselves  trifling  have  frequently  an  important 
influence  at  critical  junctures  in  the  world's  history,  and  serve 
to  encourage  or  dishearten  men  in  a  degree  quite  disproportion- 
ate to  the  intrinsic  magnitude  of  the  occurrences.  So  it  was 
that  the  news  of  a  success  gained  by  Henry  of  Navarre,  not  far 
from  La  Rochelle,  accomplished  the  important  end  of  infusing 
new  strength  into  the  hearts  of  the  Huguenots,  while  it  dis- 
pelled the  illusions  of  such  courtiers  as  had  taken  for  granted 
that  all  was  now  over  with  the  son  of  Jeanne  d'Albret,  and 
that  the  Protestant  stronghold  would  easily  be  reduced  by 
siege.  At  any  other  time  the  engagement  might  have  been 
viewed  as  unworthy  of  special  mention. 

Of  the  two  rivers  which  bear  the  name  of  Sevre,  and  jointly 
give  name  to  a  department  of  the  present  republic  of  France, 
The" lie de  that  which  flows  by  the  city  of  Niort — the  Sevre 
Marans."  niortaise — presents  the  unusual  phenomenon  of  losing 
in  breadth  and  depth  the  farther  it  proceeds  from  its  source. 
The  same  river  which  at  Maille  is  a  respectable  stream,  three 
hundred  feet  wide,  contracts  before  reaching  the  ocean  into  a 
narrow  channel  hardly  more  than  one-fifth  as  broad.  The  very 
considerable  mass  of  water  collected  from  an  extensive  basin 
seems  to  lose  itself  in  marshes,  or  to  be  diverted  into  minor 
conduits.  These  have  made  of  much  of  the  vicinity  of  the 
Sevre,  from  the  village  of  Coulon,  not  far  from  Niort,  down  to 
the  town  of  Marans,  scarcely  two  leagues  from  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  a  morass  difficult  to  cross  in  the  rainy  season,  both 
because  of  the  uncertain  footing  offered  by  the  wet  soil,  and 
because  of  the  ditches  and  canals  intersecting  it.1  From  time 
to  time  tracts  of  dry  and  fertile  land  are  met,  as  one  descends 
the  Sevre,  which,  from  the  circumstance  that  they  are  thus  cut 
off  from  the  mainland,  are  known  as  "  islands."     The  most  im- 


1  See  the  "Description  ehorograpliique  de  l'Aunis  "  prefixed  to  Arcere,  His- 
toire  de  la  ville  de  la  Roclielle,  i.  165,  1G6. 


64       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

portant  of  these  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  perhaps  even  at 
the  present  day,  is  the  so-called  "  lie  de  Marans,1'  a  long  and 
narrow  tract  lying  between  the  river  itself,  on  the  north,  and 
the  Canal  de  la  Brune,  or  of  Saint  Michael,  on  the  south.  The 
little  domain,  which  had  a  story  of  its  own  running  back  through 
a  good  part  of  the  Middle  Ages,  was  considered  of  sufficient 
value  by  its  possessors  to  be  provided  with  not  less  than  six 
forts  commanding  the  approaches  both  from  the  land  side  and 
from  the  mouth  of  the  river.1 

The  lie  de  Marans  was  at  all  times  a  favorite  stopping-place 
of  Henry  of  Navarre,  to  whom,  amid  the  harassing  cares  of  a 
life  of  unrest  and  anxiety,  the  occasional  glimpse  of  its  quiet 
and  placid  existence  seemed  doubly  sweet.  So  it  was  that, 
two  years  before  the  adventure  which  I  am  about  to  narrate,  he 
sketched,  in  a  letter  from  La  Rochelle  to  the  Countess  of  Gram- 
mont,  a  charming  picture  of  its  beauties,  such  as  can  scarcely 
be  found  elsewhere  in  his  voluminous  correspondence.  Not 
the  fabulous  island  of  Calypso  was  painted  in  more  glowing 
colors  by  the  father  of  epic  poetry,  than  was  this  attractive 
spot  by  the  enthusiastic  pen  of  the  Huguenot  prince. 

"  I  arrived  here  last  night  from  Marans,"  writes  Henry,  "  hav- 
ing visited  the  place  in  order  to  make  provision  for  its  safety. 
O,  how  much  I  longed  for  you!  It  is  the  place  most  suited  to 
your  fancy  that  I  have  ever  seen.  For  that  reason  alone  I  am 
about  to  secure  it  by  exchange.  It  is  an  island  shut  in  by  marshy 
groves,  in  which,  at  every  hundred  paces,  there  are  channels  by 
which  one  can  go  by  boat  in  quest  of  wood.  The  water  is 
limpid  and  has  a  gentle  now ;  the  channels  are  of  all  breadths, 
the  boats  of  all  sizes.  Amid  this  wilderness  there  are  a  thou- 
sand gardens  that  can  be  reached  only  by  boat.  A  stream  passes 
by  the  foot  of  the  castle  walls,  in  the  midst  of  the  town,  which 
affords  as  good  lodging  as  Pan.  There  are  few  houses  from  the 
door  of  which  one  cannot  step  into  one's  little  boat.  This  stream 
extends  in  two  arms  which  not  only  float  large  boats,  but  per- 
mit the  passage  of  ships  of  fifty  tons.     The  distance  is  but  tw<  i 


i  Ibid.,  i.  137.     The  detailed  map  of  Aunis  prefixed  to  the  first  volume  of 
Arcere  will  be  found  very  useful  to  a  clear  understanding  of  the  geography. 


15S8.  THE  ASSEMBLY   OF   LA  ROCHELLE.  65 

leagues  to  the  sea;  it  is,  in  fact,  a  channel,  not  a  river.  Up 
stream,  large  boats  go  as  far  as  to  Niort,  twelve  leagues  distant. 
There  are  couutless  mills  and  isolated  farms.  Countless,  too, 
are  the  kinds  of  singing  birds  that  frequent  the  sea.  I  send 
you  some  of  their  feathers.  Of  fish,  the  quantity,  the  size,  and 
the  price  are  a  marvel — a  large  carp  is  sold  for  three  sous,  and 
live  sous  are  paid  for  a  pike.  It  is  a  place  of  great  traffic,  and 
all  by  boat.  The  land  is  full  of  wheat  of  a  very  fine  quality.  One 
can  live  there  agreeably  in  time  of  peace,  and  securely  in  time 
of  war.  One  can  delight  one's  self  there  with  the  object  of  one's 
love,  or  bewail  its  absence.  O,  how  pleasant  it  is  to  sing  there  !  "  ' 
Such  was  the  spot  which  Henry  of  Navarre  selected,  late  in 
the  month  of  June,  and  while  the  preliminary  negotiations  were 
its  ca  ture  s^  m  Progress  relative  to  the  Edict  of  Union,  for  an 
bnHe£rke<3  exploit  which  should  show  that  the  Huguenots  were 
Navarre.  yQ^  n0  contemptible  foes.  Marans,  which  had  for- 
merly been  in  friendly  hands,  had,  not  long  since,  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  It  was  of  importance  to  prevent  them 
from  obtaining  a  secure  foothold  in  the  province  of  Aunis  and 
within  little  more  than  a  dozen  miles  of  La  Rochelle.  Provided 
with  a  goodly  number  of  portable  bridges,  Henry  set  foot  upon 
the  neighboring  island  of  Charron,  on  the  morning  of  Friday, 
the  twenty-fourth  of  June,  and  aided  by  two  light  galiots  which 
he  had  brought  up  the  stream,  attacked  the  small  fort  known  as 
Le  Braut,  both  from  the  front  and  from  the  rear.  The  surren- 
der of  Le  Braut  was  closely  followed  by  that  of  the  only  other 
redoubt  upon  the  island,  and  the  next  day  the  King  of  Navarre 
was  able  to  approach  the  lie  de  Marans  itself.  But  it  was  no 
easy  matter  to  cross.  The  channel  was  wide  and  deep.  On 
the  opposite  side  stood  two  forts,  distant  about  six  hundred  paces 
from  each  other,  commanding  with  their  cannon  the  open  ground 
where  the  Huguenots  must  prepare  the  materials  for  their 
bridge.  A  redoubt,  newly  constructed  between  the  forts,  cov- 
ered the  very  spot  where  the  stream  must  be  spanned.  But 
the  king  did  not  relinquish  his  venturesome  undertaking.     The 


1  "  Ha!   qu'il  y  faict  bon  chanter!  "     Henry  of  Navarre  to  the  Countess  of 
Grammont,  June  17,  1586.     Lettres  missives,  ii.  224,  225. 
Vol.  II.— 5 


66  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn.  IX. 

whole  of  Saturday  was  spent  in  discharging  the  rude  artillery 
carried  by  the  galiots  against  the  forts,  and  in  skirmishes  with 
the  enemy.  At  evening  the  boats  were  ordered  to  drop  down 
toward  the  sea,  while  the  Huguenot  troops  retired  from  sight. 
If,  however,  the  enemy  imagined  that  the  attack  was  abandoned, 
they  were  quickly  undeceived.  It  was  scarcely  three  o'clock  on 
Sunday  morning  before  the  Huguenots  returned.  Before  the 
sun  was  well  up  they  might  be  seen  busily  preparing  their 
bridge,  bringing  forward  their  mantelet,  or  movable  shield,  un- 
der cover  of  which  they  made  ready  to  advance,  and  dragging 
their  boats  into  position  to  facilitate  the  crossing.  Henry  of  Xa- 
varre  was  himself  conspicuous  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  ar- 
ranging the  infantry  in  battle  array,  and  marshalling  his  cavalry 
to  give  the  foot-soldiers  proper  support.  The  enemy  in  vain 
disputed  the  paggage.  "  At  eleven  o'clock,"  says  the  chronicler, 
who  appears  to  have  been  an  eye-witness  and  a  par- 

The  soldiers 

i.rayandsing  ticipant  in  the  action,  "prayer   having  been  offered 

psalms.  /"in  i  i  i  •  i  l  ni 

up  to  (rod,  and  psalms  having  been  sung  by  an  these 
regiments  and  troops  of  cavalry,  and  all  having  received  orders 
as  to  what  they  were  to  do,  the  army  began  to  force  the 
which  was  guarded,  on  the  opposite  bank,  by  the  regiment  of 
M.  du  Cluseau  and  the  company  of  light  horse  of  the  Sienr  de 
la  Tremblaye,  and  which  was  flanked  by  two  forts  and  defended 
in  front  by  a  third  fort  and  by  a  trench."  The  struggle  was 
stubborn  on  both  sides.  The  King  of  Navarre,  ever  watchful 
and  ever  exposing  himself  with  reckless  imprudence,  led  the  way, 
riding  with  head  bare  and  without  armor,  apparently  intent 
only  upon  encouraging  his  followers  to  press  on  to  victory.  Al- 
though most  of  the  Roman  Catholics  fought  well,  some  of  them 
consternation  na(^  entered  the  battle  with  serious  misgivings,  and 
cithoiic°man  some  were  panic-stricken.  There  were  those  who. 
troops.  when  they  saw  the  Huguenots  kneel  upon  the  ground 

before  the  action  began,  exclaimed  one  to  another  in  conster- 
nation :  "  They  are  praying  to  God  !  They  will  beat  us  as  they 
did  at  Coutras  !  "  J     Suffice  it  to  say  that,  before   the  sun  set. 


1  The  fullest  account  of  this  affair  is  the  "  Discours  de  la  reprise  de  lisle, 
forts  et  Chasteau   de  Marans,  faite  par  le  Roy  de  Navarre,  au  mois  de   Juin, 


1588.  THE   ASSEMBLY    OF   LA   ROCHELLE.  67 

the  Roman  Catholic  force  was  routed  and  the  forts  were  in  the 
possession  of  the  Huguenots.  Within  three  days  every  re- 
maining stronghold  of  the  enemy  upon  the  island,  even  to  the 
castle  of  Marans  itself,  had  fallen  into  their  hands. 

Xor  was  this  the  only  exploit  of  the  restless  King  of  Navarre. 

"While  the  grand  army  of  the  west  tarried,  which,  under  the 

Duke  of  Severs,  was  expected  to  reduce  the  Protes- 

of  the  King  of   tants  of  Poitou  and  Guyenne,  the  Huguenot  prince 

Navarre. 

put  his  leisure  to  good  use.  From  the  walls  of  La 
Rochelle  northward  to  the  river  Loire  he  made  himself  vir- 
tually master  of  the  districts  bordering  upon  the  sea.  Although 
the  names  of  Montaigu,  of  Beauvoir-sur-mer,  and  of  the  other 
places  which  he  captured  may  be  obscure,  and  although  the 
Protestant  gains  may  seem  inconsiderable,  no  slight  advantage 
was  secured.  It  was  something  that,  in  the  months  immedi- 
ately succeeding  the  publication  of  the  Edict  of  Union,  when 
men  were  predicting  the  speedy  overthrow  of  the  Protestant 

1588,"  reprinted  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  411-416.  A  more  general  refer- 
ence is  made  in  the  "  Discours  sommaire  des  choses  plus  memorables  qui  se 
sont  passees,  es  sieges,  surprises  et  reprises  de  l'isle  de  Marans  en  Onix  (Au- 
nis),  es  annees  1585,  86,  87  et  88,"  ibid.,  ii.  53-84.  Respecting  the  last  inci- 
dent mentioned  in  the  text,  the  former  says,  p.  413 :  "  Aucuns  deux  out  dit 
depuis,  que  plusieurs  d'entr'eux,  voyans  les  regimens  le  genouil  en  terre, 
commencerent  a  dire:  lis  prient  Dieu  ;  ils  nous  battront  comme  a  Coutras. " 
The  language  of  the  other  account,  which  appears  to  be  not  free  from  a  tinge  of 
exaggeration,  is  even  stronger  (p.  83):  "  Lesquels  (par  leur  rapport  mesme) 
s'estans  preparez  a  la  resistance,  et  voyans  les  trouppes  du  Roy  de  Navarre, 
qui  faisoyent  la  pointe,  s'estre  mises  le  genouil  en  terre,  pour  (a  leur  cous- 
tume)  faire  leur  priere,  avant  que  d'aller  au  combat,  se  ressouvenans  des 
prieres  qui  avoyent  aussi  este  faites  a  Coutras,  entrerent  en  tel  eft'roy  qu  ils  ne 
tendirent  quasi  aucun  combat,  seulement  adviserent  au  moyen  de  se  sauver. 
Aucuns  furent  tuez  en  l'ardeur  de  la  charge,  plusieurs  se  sauverent  par  les 
marais."  See,  also,  De  Thou,  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  Recueil  des  choses  me- 
morables, etc.  The  magical  influence  which  the  sight  of  Huguenot  soldiers 
kneeling  before  the  engagement  exerted  over  their  Roman  Catholic  opponents, 
appears  to  have  connected  itself,  over  a  hundred  years  later,  in  the  time  of 
Jean  Cavalier,  with  the  sound  of  the  favorite  battle-psalm  of  the  Protestants — 
the  68th.  So,  at  least,  an  officer  who  had  fought  against  them  informed  the 
author  of  the  anonymous  Histoire  des  Camisards  (London,  1754),  i.  244. 
"  Quand,"  said  he,  "  ces  diables-la  se  mettoient  a-  chanter  leur  B.  de  chanson 
'Que  Dieu  se  montre,'  nous  ne  pouvions  plus  etre  les  maitres  de  nos  gens: 
ils  fuyoient  comme  si  tous  les  diables  avoient  ete  a  leurs  trousses." 


68       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    C...  IX. 

faith  in  France,  Henry  of  Navarre,  often  with  a  pa Itrv follow- 
ing of  a  hundred  horse  and  a  few  companies  of  foot,  should  be 
abfe  to  compel  the  Duke  of  Mercceur  to  abandon  the  siege 
S  Hi  guenot'towns  and  seek  safety  in  the  wails  of the  ci ty  ol 
Nantes     The  circumstance  that  the  prince  whom  the  Spanish 
Shis  ador  and  his  allies  of  the  League  still  affected  to  desp.se 
a™  he  "  Bearnais,"  had  skirmished  with  the  troops  of  the  royal 
governor  of  Brit  any,  had  carried  off  eight  standards,  had  cap- 
fid  fur  hundred^  fifty  prisoners,  had  taken  a  great  num- 
ber of  horses  and  baggage-wagons,  within  two  leagues  of  Bum   , 
a  suburb  of  the  greafprovincial  ^P«*»£^*£ 
both  on  friends  and  on  enemies,  not  much  infenoi   to  that 
which  might,  at  another  time,  have  followed  the  winning  of  a 

^fSecTmpletion  of  the  military  "-ven.n,  Jnst  rcferi,, 

whose  consideration  is  germane  to  the  subject  £  l  .  ■ 

i     „„  far  »=  it  affected  the  external  relations  of  the  Huguenot. 

nor  national  synod  was  possible.     In  tact,  six  yea 

JL,  mav  he  read  in  detail  *££-"  ZZSZiZ  *U« 
SS"*535  S-JESSSS^  Histoid  aes  —  *o»^ 
toX-  m  *        „,  "  te,  the  convocation  of  the  States  of  Blois.  dated 

"Ther°^     Tl588    >s ^"vlsambert,  Recneii   ta   ancienne,  1«- 
Chartres,  May  31,  lo»»,  is   given      j 

frangaises,  xiv.  613-616.  See  above   vol.  i.,  chapter  v.,  p.  290. 

3  In  August  and  September,  1584.     feee  aoove,  vu 


1588.  THE  ASSEMBLY   OF   LA   ROCHELLE.  69 

and  confusion  were  yet  to  pass  before  the  churches  could  again 
send  their  ministers  and  elders  to  confer  together  respecting  mat- 
ters of  religious  doctrine  and  practice.     Meanwhile, 

Huguenot  po-  &  r  ' 

Htioai  assembly  ]lowever,  the  political  situation  admitted  of  no  such 

at  La  Rochelle,  '  t 

November.  delay.  More  than  one  question  of  practical  impor- 
tance in  the  conduct  of  the  war  pressed  for  an  answer.  Twice 
had  the  attempt  been  made  to  bring  together  in  a  politi- 
cal assembly  the  representatives  of  all  portions  of  Protestant 
France,  but  the  expense,  the  difficulties  of  the  way,  or  the  su- 
pineness  of  some  of  the  more  distant  provinces,  had  interfered 
with  the  realization  of  the  plan.  Now,  however,  so  consider- 
able a  number  of  delegates  came  together  in  the  city  of  La 
Rochelle,  that  on  Monday,  the  fourteenth  of  November,  1588, 
the  assembly  was  formally  opened.  Great  hopes  had  been  en- 
tertained of  it  in  advance.  "  It  will  heal  many  public  sores  and 
many  private  ones,"  Duplessis  Mornay  had  written.1  It  was  a 
body  sufficiently  large  and  sufficiently  dignified  to  assume  the 
place  which  circumstances  beyond  its  control  compelled  it  to 
occupy,  of  the  Protestant  counterpart  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
states  general  of  Blois.  In  actual  numbers,  indeed,  it  could 
not  bear  comparison,  but  the  delegates  represented  both  the 
nobility  and  the  third  estate  of  the  kingdom,  and  came  from 
every  province  in  which  the  Reformed  faith  could  boast  of  ad- 
herents. From  Picardy,  on  the  north,  to  the  Protestant  dis- 
tricts at  the  base  of  the  Pyrenees,  on  the  south  ;  from  Brittany, 
on  the  west,  to  the  principality  of  Orange  and  to  Dauphiny,  on 
the  east,  there  was  scarcely  an  important  bailiwick  or  sene- 
chaussee  that  had  not  its  deputy.  Besides  the  thirty-seven 
representatives  of  the  nobles  and  the  towns,  the  King  of  Na- 
varre was  permitted  to  have  nine  deputies  of  his  own.  This 
concession,  however,  was  distinctly  understood  to  furnish  no 
precedent  for  future  assemblies.  The  meeting  was  held  in  the 
spacious  common  hall  of  the  "  echevinage  "  of  La  Rochelle. 
From  the  ceiling  hung  a  great  number  of  standards  taken  from 
the  enemy — trophies  of  the  recent  successes  of  the  Huguenots. 
The  king  himself  presided  at  the  opening  exercises,  supported 

'  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Buzanval,  October  18,  1588,  Memoires,  iv.  271. 


70       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

by  Viscount  Turenne,  his  lieutenant-general  for  the  province  of 
Guyenne,  by  La  Tremouille,  colonel  of  his  light  infantry,  and 
by  many  other  lords,  barons,  viscounts  and  gentlemen,  as  well 
as  by  the  members  of  his  council.1 

Two  days  later,  on  Wednesday,  the  sixteenth  of  Xovember, 
after  the  customary  invocation  of  God's  name,  the  King  of  Na- 
varre delivered  a  long  speech,  setting  forth  the  chief  causes  for 

which  the  assembly  had  been  summoned.     Although  addr< 

of  this  kind  do  not  ordinarily  call  for  more  than  a  passing  allu- 
sion, I  cannot  avoid  noticing  a  discourse  which  throws  no  little 
light  upon  the  attitude  of  the  Huguenot  protector,  and  is  inter- 
esting in  view  of  the  events  culminating  in  his  abjuration,  still 
almost  five  years  distant. 

"  Long  have  I  desired  the  convocation  of  this  assembly,"  said 

Henry  ;  "  but  it  seems  that  God  has  been  reserving  it  until 

now,  in  order  that  He  mi^ht  oppose  it  to  the  con- 

Addressof  .  tvi    •  mi 

the  King  of     spiracy     or  the  assembly  at  Ulois.      lhe  necessities 

Navarre.  r     i  •  i  ■  i  • 

of  the  times  ought  to  impel  everyone  to  institute  a 
strenuous  opposition  against  the  enemy,  whose  aim  must  he 
clear  to  all,  directed,  as  it  is,  both  at  the  ruin  of  the  king 
and  at  the  overthrow  of  the  entire  state.  As  for  myself,  I 
have,  until  now,  spared  neither  property  nor  life  in  so  holy 
a  cause.  Of  this  my  past  actions  can  bear  witness.  You 
cannot  raise  your  eyes,"  he  added,  glancing  upward,  ''without 
seeing  the  proofs.  If  the  difficulties  go  on  increasing,  I  also 
feel  that  my  courage  is  redoubled  of  God  to  persevere  in  the 
determination  I  long  since  formed,  which  is,  to  expend,  in  do- 
fence  of  the  churches,  the  last  drop  of  my  blood  and  the  last 
fragment  of  my  possessions.  Hereunto  I  feel  myself  called  by 
the  Almighty.  I  desire  solely  that  the  world  may  discern  in 
this  resolution  my  upright  intentions.  Herein  I  have  ever 
walked  soundly,  truly,  sincerely,  and  in  the  sight  of  God  :  and 
thus  I  desire,  more  than  ever,  to  do  in   future.     I  regret,  in- 

1  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  576. 

2  The  obsolete  sense  of  the  word  which  Henry  employed — "  monopole  " 
(Latin,  "  monopolinni ") — is  explained  by  Du  Cange,  Glossarium  ad  scrip- 
tores  mediae  et  infimae  Latinitatis,  s.  v.  :  "Hinc  denique  eadeni  vox  ad  quas- 
vis  illicitas  confoederationes  nuxit." 


15S8.  THE  ASSEMBLY   OF   LA  ROCHELLE.  71 

deed,  that  there  are  those  by  whom  my  labors  have  not  been 
recognized,  and  by  whom  my  actions  have  been  misrepresented. 
Yet  daily  do  I  pray  to  God  that  He  may  grant  me  the  grace 
to  lead  His  people  through  so  many  horrors  and  such  fearful 
deserts  to  a  safe  and  blessed  rest — even  should  I  not  myself  be 
permitted  to  partake  of  it,  even  should  it  be  at  the  price  of 
my  own  life.  The  length  of  the  war  and  the  license  of  arms 
have,  to  my  great  regret,  introduced  many  disorders,  for  which 
I  desire  that  provision  be  made  in  the  best  manner  possible, 
to  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  advantage  of  the  king,  the  state, 
and  every  individual  person  in  the  realm.  To  the  consideration 
of  this  subject  I  beg  every  member  of  this  assembly  to  bring 
an  unbiassed  mind,  zealous  for  the  public  good.  This  being  so, 
I  am  confident  that  God  will  bless  your  deliberations,  and  en- 
able you  all  to  gather  their  fruit,  for  His  own  glory  and  the 
deliverance  of  His  children." 

Next  the  King  of  Navarre  proceeded  to  portray  the  happy 
results  that  would  flow,  in  so  holy  a  cause  as  that  in  which  the 
Huguenots  were  engaged,  from  an  indissoluble  union,  and  from 
mutual  agreement,  for  the  firm  establishment  of  every  form  of 
good  order.  In  this  he  exhorted  them  all  to  persevere  as  here- 
tofore ;  so  much  the  more  as  the  innovations  and  changes  in- 
troduced by  the  malice  of  the  enemy  seemed  more  imperatively 
to  demand  it.  Especially  did  he  ask  them  to  make  provision 
for  that  which  most  concerned  the  glory  and  service  of  God — 
the  order,  government,  and  discipline  of  the  Church. 

"  And,"  he  added,  "  that  the  wrath  of  God  be  not  further 
provoked  by  the  oaths,  blasphemies,  abductions,  lewdness, 
thefts,  forbidden  games,  and  other  excesses  that  have,  by  the 
misfortune  of  war,  found  their  way  into  the  practice  of  some, 
I  require  that  the  ordinances  made  to  this  end  be  strictly  en- 
forced by  all  governors  and  magistrates,  and  be  observed  with- 
out any  dissimulation  or  respect  of  persons.  And  I  enjoin 
upon  the  same  magistrates,  under  severe  penalties,  that  they 
see  to  it  that  the  discipline  of  the  Church  have  its  due  weight 
and  authority." 

The  king  closed  with  a  plea  that  proper  provision  should 
be  made  for  the  wants  of  the  poor,  and  that   care  should  be 


72       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

exercised  in  the  selection  of  competent  men  for  all  public 
offices.1 

The  Huguenot  assembly  replied  to  Navarre's  address  in  words 

as  cordial  as  his  own.     The   delegates  humbly   thanked  him 

both  for  the  care  his  maiestv  had  been   pleased   to 

Cordial  re-  .  i      •         i  1      •  i 

sponseof  the    exercise  over  their  churches,  as  their  true  and  lawful 

delegates.  -i      r  i  iiiti  • 

protector,  and  tor  the  interest  he  had  displayed  m 
the  common  weal.  They  pledged  their  persons,  their  lives,  and 
their  estates  to  his  service,  and  begged  that  God  would  con- 
tinue to  extend  to  him  His  blessing  and  favor,  for  His  own 
glory,  the  preservation  of  His  Church,  and  the  public  prosper- 
ity and  peace.2 

The  King  of  Navarre's  speech  was  an  excellent  one,  full  of 
noble  thoughts  and  high  aspirations  such  as  his  Majesty  knew 
well  how  to  frame  in  language,  even  without  the  help  of  the 
great  heart  and  ready  pen  of  Duplessis  Mornay.  And  in  some 
sense  the  speaker  was  not  merely  playing  a  part  when  he 
The  protes-  uttered  them.  His  higher  and  better  nature  in- 
incorSisten-8  dorsed  them  in  every  particular.  But  the  exhorta- 
cies-  tions  to  a  careful  application  of  the  ecclesiastical  and 

civil  laws  against  the  various  forms  of  vice  and  nncleanness, 
have  a  strange  sound  in  our  ears  as  they  come  from  the  lips  of 
the  royal  orator.  We  are  each  moment  tempted  to  ask  our- 
selves whether  his  auditors  were  able  to  banish  from  their 
minds  the  name  of  the  Countess  of  Grammont  and  the  memory 
of  that  fatal  delay  after  Coutras  ;  whether  the  grave  deputies 


1  The  accounts  of  Henry's  speech  differ  considerably  from  one  another,  and 
I  have  found  it  by  no  means  easy  to  bring  them  into  complete  harmony.  I 
have  followed  in  the  text  chiefly  the  authority  of  the  Memoirea  de  la  Ligne 
(ii.  577,  578),  of  which  the  preface  to  the  second  volume  bears  the  date  of  May 
16,  1589,  or  precisely  six  months  after  the  delivery  of  the  speech  ;  but  I  have 
had  under  my  eyes,  and  have  made  use  of  the  brief  statement  of  the  Histoire  de 
la  vie  de  Messire  Philippes  de  Mornay  (Leyden,  1647),  119,  120  ;  the  longer 
"  Proposition  du  roy  de  Navarre  en  l'assembh''e  teneue  a  La  Rochelle,"  in  Me- 
moires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  iv.  272-5  ;  Cayet,  Chronologie  novenaire,  68,  89 
De  Thou,  vii.  306,  307  ;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  133  :  Anquea,  39  ;  Von  Po- 
lenz,  iv.  571,  etc.;  and  Stahelin,  189,  etc..  who  inadvertently  speaks  of  the 
assembly  as  a  "Synod." 

2  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  578. 


I5SS.  THE   ASSEMBLY   OF   LA  ROCHELLE.  73 

could  suppress  the  feeling  that  the  man  who  spoke  so  elo- 
quently in  favor  of  purity,  while  his  private  life  was  not  above 
reproach,  was  but  playing  a  part. 

Henry  of  Navarre's  associates  in  the  great  struggle  for  relig- 
ious liberty  now  in  progress  were  no  cowards.  Not  even  the 
strong  conviction  that  his  assistance  in  the  desperate  struggle 
Frank  remon-  was  indispensable  to  the  success  of  the  good  cause, 
was  potent  enough  to  seal  their  lips.  In  this  very 
crisis  there  were  found  deputies  bold  and  candid  enough  to 
remonstrate  with  him  on  his  present  course.  His  faults  and 
his  blunders,  his  prodigal  gifts  to  the  unworthy  and  his  neglect 
of  the  deserving,  his  favors  extended  to  members  of  the  League 
in  the  vain  hope  of  winning  them  over,  his  amours  and  the 
great  expense  they  entailed,  at  a  time  when  faithful  servants  of 
his  crown  were  dying  of  hunger — these  and  other  things  were 
told  him  to  his  face  with  wonderful  frankness.  He  learned 
much  of  what  upright  men  thought  of  his  course  from  the 
ministers  of  the  gospel,  whom,  in  the  parlance  of  the  times, 
he  had  not  yet  succeeded  in  "  civilizing."  Jean  Gardesi,  a 
prominent  pastor  of  Montauban,  enjoys  the  honor  of  being  de- 
scribed by  Agrippa  d'Aubigne  as  "  the  most  severe  Nathan  " 
among  them  all.1 

It  is  worthy   of  note  that  Henry  of  Navarre  bore  all  this 

sound  advice  and  rebuke  with  a  patience  for  which  few  would 

have  given  him  credit.2     As  he  had  not  been  offended  by  the 

plainness   of    speech   of   Theodore   Beza,  and    even 

Henry  hears      r  r  ? 

them  patient-   thanked  the  aged  reformer  for  his  Christian  candor, 

ly.  . 

so  he  took  the  counsels  of  Gardesi  and  others  in  the 
best  part.  Was  this  because  he  was  callous  to  appeals  of  the 
kind  now  addressed  to  him,  but  was  content,  from  motives  of 
policy,  to  allow  them  to  be  uttered  and  then  to  be  dismissed  un- 
heeded ?  I  cannot  believe  it  was  so,  at  least  at  this  stage  of  his 
history.  A  careful  examination  leads  rather  to  the  view  that, 
while  by  no  means  ready  to  renounce  his  sinful  pleasures,  the 

!  Histoire  universelle,  iii.  133. 

2  "  II  supporta  le  tout  avec  merveilleuse  patience,"  says  Agrippa  d'Aubigne, 
iii.  133. 


74       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn.  IX. 

king  still  cherished  the  memory  of  the  virtuous  example  and 
the  wise  precepts  of  his  mother.  If  disinclined  to  conform  his 
life  to  the  strict  code  of  Huguenot  morals,  he  was,  nevertheless, 
frank  enough  to  admit,  in  effect  if  not  by  words,  that  the  code 
in  question  had  the  full  approval  of  his  conscience.  The  Hu- 
guenot minister  who  rebuked  him  had  only  discharged  his 
duty.  Henry  of  Navarre  was  not  disposed  to  find  fault  with 
him  for  being  consistent.  Whether  he  would  alter  his  own 
conduct  in  consequence,  was  another  question. 

But  the  prince  so  wonderfully  patient  of  censure  in  matters 
pertaining  to  his  private  life,  was  quite  a  different  personage 
Heisintoier-  when  the  political  situation  was  touched  upon,  lie 
oaf  ?  PoSti  was  greatly  displeased,  and  showed  no  reluctance  to 
tion-  testify  his  annoyance,  at  the  opposition  exhibited  by 

some  of  the  deputies  to  what  the  provinces  styled  the  "  pro- 
tectoral  tyranny."  Any  measures  proposed  with  the  view  of 
re-establishing  the  former  order  of  things  and  taking  new  pre- 
cautions vexed  him.  The  fact  was  that  in  his  eyes  the  political 
rank  to  which  he  aspired,  with  the  prospective  succession  to  the 
crown  of  France  upon  the  death  of  the  present  possessor  of  the 
throne,  seemed  of  far  greater  consequence  than  any  question  of 
religious  faith  or  practice.  He  forgot  that  others  might  not 
take  the  same  view  ;  and,  it  is  said,  ventured  to  sound  the  as- 
sembly at  La  Kochelle  as  to  the  propriety  of  that  body's  peti- 
tioning the  states  general  of  Blois  for  the  k'  instruction  n  of  the 
King  of  Navarre  by  means  of  a  Council  !  "When  he  found  that 
the  sturdy  Protestant  delegates  would  hearken  to  no  such  sug- 
gestion, he  did  not  abandon  the  idea,  but  himself  sent  to  ask 
for  "instruction."  The  ridicule  with  which  his  peti- 
for  "instruc-  tion  was  received  by  the  adherents  of  the  League  at 
Blois  was  only  equalled  by  the  indignation  felt  bv 
the  "  consistorial,"  or  more  thoroughly  religious  party  among 
his  fellow  Protestants.1 

Of  the  results  of  the  deliberations  of  the  Assembly  of  La 
Rochelle,  much  as  they  present  that  would  be  of  interest  to  a 

1  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  133,  148  ;  Stalielin,  Uebertritt  Konig  Heinriehs 
les  Vierten,  191. 


1588.  THE   ASSEMBLY  OF   LA  ROCHELLE.  75 

student  of  the  political  antiquities  of  the  Huguenot  party,  but 
little  can,  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  be  said  here.1  It  pro- 
vided, first  of  all,  for  an  oath  to  be  assumed  by  all 
oftheHugue-  the  leaders,  without  distinction  of  rank,  to  remain 
faithful  to  the  Confession  of  Faith  promulgated  by 
the  first  Synod  of  the  Church,  and  to  uphold  an  indissoluble 
union  among  themselves.  Henry  of  Navarre,  as  Protector  of 
the  Cause,  pledged  his  word  to  devote  himself  unreservedly  to 
the  maintenance  of  good  laws,  and  to  be  guided  by  the  advice 
of  the  council a  that  should  be  given  him.  The  deputies  in 
turn,  while  distinctly  protesting  their  undiminished  allegiance 
to  the  King  of  France,  swore  submission  to  the  authority  of 
Henry  of  Navarre  and  support  of  his  arms  against  those 
who,  through  hatred  of  Protestantism,  should  resist  his  will. 
The  protec-  -^  defined  the  constitution  of  the  council — a  represen- 
tor's council,  tative  body,  iive  of  whose  members  were  to  be  deputed 
by  as  many  provincial  assemblies,  and  five  more  to  be  chosen 
by  the  national  assembly  itself.  One  member  was  to  be  chosen 
by  the  city  of  La  Pochelle.  All  the  princes  of  the  blood  and 
peers  of  France  that  should  espouse  the  Protestant  side,  as  well 
as  noblemen  of  tried  valor  such  as  La  Noue,  Turenne,  Mont- 
morency, La  Tremouille,  Chatillon,  and  Lesdiguieres,  were 
also  permitted  to  have  a  seat. 

The  minute  regulations  as  to  the  convocation  of  annual  pro- 
vincial assemblies,  the  levy  of  troops,  the  management  of  the 
common  funds,  and  the  administration  of  justice,  need  not  de- 
tain us.3    More  interesting,  from  our  point  of  observation,  is  the 


1  See  the  very  full  statements  in  Anquez,  Histoire  des  assemblies  politiques 
des  Reformes  de  France,  40-50. 

-  "  Le  tout  par  protestation  expresse  de  ne  nous  departir  de  la  naturelle 
sujetion  que  nous  devons  au  roi,  notre  souverain  seigneur,  auquei  nous  jurons 
et  protestons  devant  Dieu  vouloir  rendre  toute  obeissance  et  fidelite  dues, 
l'empire  souverain  de  Dieu  demeurant  en  son  entier."     Anquez,  40. 

3  It  may,  however,  be  noted  that  provision  was  made  for  a  very  complete 
system  of  courts  of  justice.  These  included  tbe  "sovereign  court"  already 
existing  for  Dauphiny,  and  several  new  courts — one  ''  mi-partie,"  or  composed 
of  an  equal  number  of  Protestants  and  Roman  Catholics,  at  Montpellier  in 
Languedoc  ;  others,  composed  exclusively  of  Protestants,  at  Saint  Jean  d'An- 
gely,  Bergerac,  and  Xerac  ;  and    a  seneschal's   court  at  Castres.      The  letters 


76       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE    Ch.  IX. 

solicitude  exhibited,  even  in  the  midst  of  a  desperate  struggle  for 
very  existence,  for  the  maintenance  of  a  body  of  religious  teach- 
ers, and  for  the  promotion  of  higher  learning.  With  the  former  of 
provision  for  these  two  objects  in  view,  a  portion  of  the  ecclesiastical 
teKrTand  revenues  which  the  Huguenots  might  seize  was  to  be 
for  education,  applied  to  the  support  of  the  Protestant  pastors,  and. 
in  case  of  their  death,  to  that  of  their  needy  widows  and  chil- 
dren. To  accomplish  the  second  object,  it  was  arranged  that  a 
university  should  be  founded  at  La  Pochelle.  Its  income  was 
to  be  derived  from  the  Romish  ecclesiastical  revenues.  The 
faculty  was  to  consist  of  one  professor  and  one  doctor  of 
theology,  and  several  professors  of  humanities.  The  first  two 
were  provided  with  salaries  of  eight  hundred  livres  each,  the 
others  were  to  have  six  hundred.  Forty-six  scholars  were  to  be 
admitted.  Languedoc  and  the  larger  Protestant  provinces  had 
each  the  privilege  of  sending  eight  scholars  ;  the  smaller  could 
send  but  two  or  four.  Every  student  was  allowed  a  sum  of 
money  for  his  support ;  but  the  grant  to  the  student  of  theology 
was  four  times  as  great  as  that  given  to  the  student  of  humani- 
ties. All  the  matriculants,  excepting  the  sons  of  doc 
ministers,  were  required  to  enter  into  a  formal  engagement  to 
pursue  a  systematic  course  of  study  ;  and  no  one  was  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  institution  under  the  age  of  seven  year-. 

An  assembly  so  solicitous  for  the  advancement  of  religion 
and  sound  learning  may  well  be  pardoned,  even  if  it  showed 
some  lack  of  confidence  in  the  wk  Protector  "  of  the  Reformed 
Churches,  and  was  not  quite  so  careful  as  it  might  have  been 
not  to  wound  his  ambition  or  his  vanity.  As  it  was.  when  the 
convocation  closed,  on  Sunday,  the  seventeenth  of  December, 
with  preaching,  the  administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  pub- 
lic prayers,  and  with  a  ceremonial  not  inferior  in  dignity  to  that 


patent  for  the  institution  of  a  "sovereign  court"  at  Saint  Jean  d'Angely 
were  issued  in  the  name  of  the  assembly,  December,  22,  1588.  and  were  veri- 
fied by  that  court  in  the  following  spring  (March  '28.  1589).  '*  without  prejudice 
to  the  rights  of  the  king."  This  court  was  suppressed  by  Henry  IV.  a  mouth 
after  his  accession.  See  Anquez,  129,  and  Soulier,  Histoire  des  edits  de 
pacification,  175,  176. 

1  Anquez,  Appendice,  454,  455. 


1588.  THE  ASSEMBLY   OF  LA  ROCHELLE  77 

which  characterized  the  opening,  the  King  of  Navarre  was 
more  delighted  than  any  one  else.  The  month  of  its  sessions 
had  brought  him  face  to  face  with  unpleasant  truths.  "  You 
thought  me  relieved  because  I  had  retired  into  our  garrisoned 
towns,"  he  wrote  to  the  Countess  of  Grammont.  "In  truth, 
were  there  to  be  another  assembly,  I  should  go  stark  mad.  All 
is  finished,  and  well  finished,  thank  God  !  " * 

Meantime,  his  anxiety  to  get  rid  of  the  troublesome  assem- 
bly had  not  induced  Henry  to  neglect  his  interests.  Before 
the  delegates  dispersed,  he  had  taken  pains  to  seek  out  and 
become  reconciled  with  every  one  of  those  who,  as  he  had 
learned  by  his  secret  agents,  had  spoken  ill  of  him.2 

It  would  be  neither  altogether  fair  to  Henry  of  Navarre,  nor 

in  strict  accordance  with  truth,  to  deny  that  some  members  of 

the  Assembly  of  La  Rochelle  had  given    the   king  abundant 

reason  for  annoyance.     Like  many  of  their  constit- 

The  cordis-  1         -i    -i  t      t  •  i  •  . 

toriai  parry      uents,  the  delegates  belonging  to  the  "  consistonal 

6Uspicious.  •  II  i     •  i  t  •  r 

party  occasionally  erred  in  the  direction  or  extreme 
suspicion  respecting  everything  done  at  the  Protestant  court. 
Democratic  tendencies  asserted  themselves.  Little  account  was 
made  of  Navarre's  services,  and  his  mistakes  were  magnified. :t 
There  had  long  been  talk  of  electing  John  Casimir,  the  tried 
ally  of  the  Huguenots,  Protector  in  place  of  Henry ;  now, 
some  were  in  favor  of  the  appointment  of  distinct  protectors 
for  each  province.  The  management  of  the  common  funds 
was,  as  usual,  a  fruitful  source  of  complaint.     But,  fortunately 


1  Henry  of  Navarre  to  the  Countess  of  Grammont,  December  22,  1588, 
Lettres  missives,  ii.  411. 

2  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  134. 

3  If  we  might  believe  Anquez,  Histoire  des  Assemblies  Politiques,  39,  some 
one  had  the  audacity  to  say  in  Henry's  very  presence,  at  La  Rochelle :  "Here 
is  the  time  to  make  slaves  and  serfs  of  kings."  This  usually  accurate  histo- 
rian, however,  has  here  made  a  mistake.  Charlotte  Arbaleste,  wife  of  Duplessis 
Mornay,  to  whose  Memoires,  166,  he  refers,  does  not  record  the  obnoxious  re- 
mark. But  the  editor  of  the  Memoires  recalls,  in  a  note,  an  incident  doubt- 
less drawn  from  Cayet  (Chronologie  Novenaire,  68),  who  says:  "  Les  beaux  et 
gentils  esprits  qui  estoient  avec  le  roy  de  Navarre,  et  qui  avoient  des  nouvelles 
de  ce  qui  se  passoit  a  Blois,  disoient :  '  Voicy  le  temps  que  Ton  veult  rendre 
les  princes  serfs  et  esclaves,'  "  which  is  an  entirely  different  thing. 


78       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

for  the  king,  he  had  confided  the  supreme  administration  to 
Duplessis  Mornay,  and  that  pure  and  scrupulous  statesman  and 
financier  was  able  to  satisfy  the  most  captious,  and  to  convince 
impartial  men  that  they  ought  rather  to  be  surprised  at  the 
great  results  that  had  been  attained  with  such  slender  means, 
than  to  wonder  at  the  magnitude  of  the  sums  expended.1 

The  Huguenot  deputies  had  worked  ably,  as  well  as  faithfully, 
during  their  four  weeks'  sojourn  at  La  Hochelle.  This  the 
completeness  of  their  organization  amply  testified.  The  assi- 
duity with  which  they  subsequently  applied  themselves  to  the 
task  of  securing  the  strict  enforcement  of  the  plan  adopted 
produced,  on  thinking  men  among  their  opponents,  the  impres- 
sion that  the  Protestants  were  prepared  to  wage  eternal  war, 
unless  a  peace  on  suitable  terms  were  conceded  to  them.2 

The  convocation  of  the  states  general,  after  an  interval  of 

eleven  years  during  which  the  popular  voice  had  been  silent, 

was  one  of  the  important  points  in  the  compact  be- 

The  second  ,  jit  t>      i       ti  c 

states  gen-      tween   the  king    and    the  League,     lioth   Henry   of 
Valois  and  his   namesake  of  Guise   counted    much 
upon  the  support  of  the  people,  the  former  hoping  to  recover 
the  authority  he  had  thrown  away,  the  latter  confident  of  his 
ability  to  consolidate,  by  means  of  the  influence  of  his  partis 
the  structure  of  usurped  power  which  he  had  long  been  rearing. 
Outwardly,  indeed,  the   triumph    of   the  aspiring  duke  ap- 
peared complete.     He  was  already  Grand  Master  of  France  : 
he    now   received    the    appointment    of    Lieutenant- 
lieutenant-      General   of   the   kingdom.3     The   patent    that    made 
him  commander-in-chief  of  the  armies  in  the  king's 
absence,  incidentally  conferred  such  extensive  powers  upon  him. 

1  See  the  summary  of  Duplessis  Mornay's  speech  in  Histoire  de  la  vie  de  M-  - 
sire  Philippes  de  Mornay  (Leyden,  1647),  120.  121.  "  Xe  demandes  poind," 
Duplessis  had  written  to  Buzanval,  October  18,  1588.  "comme  plnsieurs. 
pourquoi  ne  faisons  nous  ceci  ou  cela  ?  mais  admires  plustost  comment,  de- 
puis  quattre  ans,  nous  pouvons  faire  ce  que  nous  faisons,  et  pries  Dieu  qu'il 
assiste  le  prince,  qui,  certes,  si  son  zele,  sa  diligence,  son  industrie  estoient 
secondes  de  moyens,  ne  manqueroit  de  vertu  pour  plus  grandes  choses.''  Me- 
moires,  iv.  272.  '  So  says  Cayet,  introduction,  08.  69. 

3  See  the  document,  dated  August  4,  1588,  in  Memoires  de  Xevers,  i.  729, 
730,  well  characterized  by  the  editor  (in  the  table  of  contents   as  a  •*  Commi§- 


1588.  THE  SECOND   STATES   OF   BLOIS.  79 

that  it  almost  seemed  as  if  his  majesty  had  resigned  into 
his  hands  the  entire  administration  of  the  affairs  of  state. 
With  perhaps  as  much  sincerity  as  is  ordinarily  contained  in 
such  requests,  the  duke  at  first  took  care  to  beg  that  he  might 
be  excused  from  accepting  this  new  honor  and  responsibility ; 
but,  upon  the  king's  insisting,  his  obedient  subject  yielded.' 
There  is  often  significance  in  a  comparison  of  dates.  The  very 
day  Henry  the  Third  signed  the  suicidal  decree  in  favor  of 
Guise,  the  "  Invincible  Armada  "  was  off  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
fully  equipped  for  the  work  of  the  reduction  of  heretical  Eng- 
land, to  accomplish  which  it  had  been  despatched  by  Philip 
the  Second  with  all  imaginable  papal  blessings.2  Fear  of  the 
Spaniard  had  undoubtedly  had  much  to  do  with  the  cowardly 
surrender  of  the  Yalois  to  the  League.  But  now  that  he  had 
made  his  choice,  the  king  was  resolved  to  act  his  part  to  per- 
fection. In  fact,  he  outdid  the  expectations  of  his  enemies, 
and  excited  suspicion  by  the  very  effusiveness  of  his 

Hypocrisy  of  r  .    J  J 

Henry  of        demonstrations  or  amity.     It  was  not  enough  to  wel- 

Valois. 

come  the  envoys  of  the  city  of  Paris,  the  Archbishop 
of  Bourges,  and  other  violent  adherents  of  the  League,  as  though 
they  were  personal  friends  ;  he  must  greet  them  and  the  Guises 
as  his  liberators.  "  I  was  a  captive  in  body  and  mind,"  said 
he,  "  so  possessed  by  those  about  me  as  not  to  be  able  to  call 
myself  my  own  master  or  your  king.  lsTow,  thank  God,  I  am 
free,  and  I  recognize  this  fact  to  be  owing  to  your  goodness 
and  the  goodness  of  my  cousins  of  Guise.  Henceforth  I  mean 
to  be  controlled  by  their  advice  and  that  of  the  other  princes, 
and  to  govern  my  kingdom  with  their  counsel."  3  The  farce 
was  kept  up  when  the  king  and  the  duke  met  at  Chartres,  for 
the  first  time  after  the  day  of  the  Barricades.  His  Very  Chris- 
tian Majesty  could  not  have  been  more  affectionate  to  a  dearly 
loved  brother.  It  was  noticeable,  however,  that  neither  of  the 
actors  was  quite  at  his  ease.     Guise  was  "  red  as  fire  ;  "  Henry 

sion  du  Roy  Henry  III.  en  faveur  du  Due  de  Guise,  par  laquelle  il  luy  octroye, 
non  seulement  la  Lieutenance  generale  de  ses  arm  es,  mais  la  conduite  de 
lEstat." 

"]  De  Thou,  vii.  239,  240.  2  Motley,  United  Netherlands,  ii.  481. 

3  Cavriana  to  Serguidi,  July  26,  1588,  NYjgociations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  798. 


80       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

of  Valois  was  pale  and  livid  when,  after  sundry  embraces,  he 
courteously  invited  his  guest  into  his  cabinet.1  Even  the  wily 
Lorraine  prince  was  perplexed  what  to  make  of  the  situation. 
Was  the  king  insincere  ?  The  dissimulation  was  greater  than 
Frenchmen  knew  how  to  practise.  Was  his  "  conversion M 
genuine  1  The  change  of  intention  was  so  marvellous  as  to 
baffle  belief.  It  was  a  veritable  new  creation.2  Yet,  had  Guise 
been  by  nature  the  most  unsuspicious  of  men,  the  warnings 
that  reached  him  from  every  quarter  must  have  occasioned  him 
some  misgivings.  Bernardino  de  Mendoza,  in  particular,  did 
not  keep  silence.  That  prudent  ambassador,  who  had  been 
remonstrating  till  he  was  weary  at  the  inconsiderateness  with 
which  his  French  allies,  far  from  concealing,  even  boasted  to 
the  whole  world  of  the  help  derived  from  Philip,  met  Guise 
imprudence  by  night  and  with  the  utmost  secrecy,  and  urged  him 
fea?sUofehisd  to  be  on  his  guard.  But  Guise  was  determined  to 
friends.  gQ  to  tne  royal  court,  and  to  be  on  hand  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  states  general.  Fie  would  brave  the  danger,  he  said, 
rather  than  incur  the  charge  of  pusillanimity.  Besides,  he 
would  have  a  following  that  would  make  him  stronger  than  the 
king.3  "  The  only  real  danger  I  shall  have  to  run,''  said  the 
duke,  with  almost  prophetic  apprehension  of  his  coming  fate, 
"  may  possibly  be  in  the  king's  cabinet,  into  which  a  man  is  only 
admitted  by  himself,  and  where  that  prince  has  every  facility 
for  attacking  and  killing  me  by  means  of  ten  or  twenty  men 
that  might  be  posted  there  for  the  purpose.  But  even  this 
danger  is  little  to  be  feared.  It  would  scarcely  be  possible  to 
make  all  the  arrangements  for  the  execution  of  such  a  project 
but  something  must  transpire,  and  certainly  if  a  conspiracy 
existed  I  should  be  informed  of  it  by  the  personal  friends  I 
have  about  the  king."  The  ambassador  was  not  convinced, 
but,  seeing  Guise's  determination,  he  forebore  farther  remon- 

1  Cavriana  toSerguidi,  August  8,  1588,  Negociationes  avec  la  Toscane  iv.  80-4. 

2  "Bref,  nous  ne  pouvons  de  ce  qui  se  pense  en  credence  que  en  juger  ou 
une  extreme  disimulacion  et  plus  grande  que  les  espris  francois  ne  la  peuvent 
couvrir,  ou  bien  une  merveilleuse  mutacion  de  volontez  et  come  uu  nouveau 
monde."     Guise  to  Mendoza,  August  6,  1588,  De  Croze,  ii.  353,  354. 

3  Mendoza  to  Philip  II.,  August  9,  1588,  De  Croze,  ii.  355,  350. 


1588.  THE  SECOND  STATES   OF  BLOIS.  81 

strance.  The  duke,  he  saw,  derived  his  confidence  mostly 
from  the  fact  that  he  had  in  Yilleroy,  the  king's  secretary, 
a  friend  who  would  reveal  everything  to  him ;  partly,  also, 
from  the  devotion  to  his  interests  of  the  younger  queen,  who 
was  an  excellent  Christian,  living  exemplarily,  going  to  confes- 
sion and  communing  every  Sunday,  and  possibly  cherishing 
some  resentment  against  her  unfaithful  husband.1  Six  weeks 
later,  when  the  time  for  the  opening  of  the  states  was  approach- 
ing, Guise  had  lost  none  of  his  defiance  and  contempt  of  danger. 
"  We  are  not  lacking  in  warnings  from  all  sides,"  he  wrote  to 
Mendoza,  "  that  an  attempt  is  intended  upon  my  life.  Against 
it  I  have,  thank  God,  made  such  provision,  as  well  by  the  accu- 
mulation of  a  goodly  number  of  my  friends,  as  by  gaining  over 
by  presents  and  money  a  part  of  those  whom  it  is  the  inten- 
tion to  use  in  this  execution,  that,  if  the  other  side  make  a  be- 
ginning, I  shall  make  an  end  of  it  more  roughly  than  I  did  at 
Paris." 2 

If,  in  the  concessions  made  to  Guise  and  to  the  League,  the 
king  had  taken  counsel  of  his  fears,  he  was  not  without  the 
The  king  fails  hope  of  being  able  to  regain  his  ascendency  by  means 
Majority  of  of  the  states  general.  For  this  purpose  he  endeav- 
the  delegates.  ore^  j.Q  gecure  ^\ie  election  of  delegates  of  undoubted 
loyalty,  and  when  the  states  met  he  spared  none  of  the  arts 
of  the  demagogue.  Each  member  was  accosted  by  the  king's 
agents,  and  was  courteously  invited  to  call  upon  his  majesty  in 
the  castle.3     But  if  Henry  of  Yalois  hoped  thus  to  gain  the 


1  Mendoza  to  Philip  II.,  August  9,  1588,  De  Croze,  ii.  356,  357.  The  repre- 
sentations of  the  Florentine  agent  at  the  court  of  France  agree  well  with  those 
of  Mendoza ;  but  the  former  emphasizes  the  fear  of  a  general  massacre. 
"  Quelli  del  duca  di  Guise,  cioe  della  Lega,"  writes  Cavriana,  October  13, 
1588,  "  temono  molto,  che,  essendo  egli  rinchiuso  nel  castello,  il  Re  gli  faccia 
una  burla  at  tempo  della  notte  ;  e,  avendolo  levato  dinnanzi,  faccia  un  simil 
Vespro  Siciliano  sui  suoi,  che  sono  piti  di  trecento  gentiluomini,  e  Madonna 
Santa  Lega  con  questo  artifizio  se  ne  vada  a  spasso. "  Negociations  avec  la 
Toscane,  iv.  829. 

2  "  Que  si  Ton  comance  (commence),  j'acheverav  plus  rudement  que  je  n'ay 
fait  a  Paris."  Mucius  (Guise)  to  Mendoza,  September  21,  1588,  De  Croze,  ii. 
361. 

3  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  120. 

Vol.  II.— 6 


82       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn.  IX. 

support  of  a  majority  of  the  delegates,  he  was  destined  to  be 
speedily  undeceived.  Guise  had,  as  usual,  anticipated  him. 
Into  every  province,  to  every  bailiwick  and  senecliaussee,  the 
duke  had  sent  men  in  whom  he  could  repose  implicit  confi- 
dence. More  than  a  month  before  the  formal  opening  of  the 
sessions,  he  already  felt  sure  that  he  had  a  majority  of  the  del- 
egates devoted  to  his  cause.1  The  blandishments  of  the  king 
had  no  effect  in  changing  the  determination  of  the  mem- 
bers, whether  representing  church,  noblesse,  or  third  estate,  to 
uphold  the  cause  of  the  Holy  League  and  make  no  peace  with 
heretics. 

Meanwhile  Henry  of  Valois  had  but  one  consolation :  the 
Invincible  Armada  had  been  utterly  ruined,  and,  with  it,  the 
The  invincible  adventurous  hopes  of  the  conquest  of  England,  which 
Armada.  Philip  the  Second  had  founded  upon  the  expedition, 

disappeared  forever.  The  Very  Christian  monarch  took  no 
pains  to  conceal  the  joy  he  felt  at  the  discomfiture  of  his  brother, 
the  Catholic  king.  "  You  would  not  believe,"  wrote  the  Duke 
of  Guise,  at  Blois,  to  Bernardino  de  Mendoza,  at  Paris,  "you 
would  not  believe  the  artifices  here  resorted  to  for  the  purpose 
of  hindering  the  affairs  of  the  King  of  Spain,  nor  how  open  i> 
the  joy  expressed  over  the  little  effect  produced  by  his  naval 
expedition."2  And  Frenchmen  at  court  and  elsewhere  told 
one  another,  with  great  glee,  how  that  on  Pa6quin's  statue  in 
Rome  itself  the  following  notice,  purporting  to  come  from  the 
Vatican,  had  been  found  attached : 

"  If  any  man  or  woman  have  tidings  of  the  army  from  Spain. 
lost  at  sea  within  the  past  three  weeks  or  thereabouts,  and  can 
give  information  as  to  what  has  become  of  it,  let  that  person 
come  and  reveal  the  matter,  applying  at  the  palace  of  Saint 
Peter's,  where  the  Holy  Father  will  see  that  his  wine  be  given 
to  him."  3 

The  solemn  opening  of  the  states  general  took  place  on  the 


1  Mucius  (Guise)  to  Mendoza,  September  5,  1588.  De  Croze,  ii.  360. 

2  Mucius  (Guise)  to  Mendoza,  September  21,  1588,  De  Croze,  ii.  361.     See, 
also,  Motley,  United  Netherlands,  ii.  530,  531. 

3  Lestoile,  i.  263. 


1588  THE  SECOND   STATES  OF  BLOIS.  83 

sixteenth  of  October.  Against  a  convocation  which  he  scarce- 
ly knew  whether  to  fear,  as  tending  to  restrict  the  absolute 
authority  claimed  by  the  crown  of  France,  or  to  hail  with 
delight,  as  likely  to  offer  some  escape  from  the  intolerable  en- 
croachments of  the  League,  Henry  of  Yalois  had  made  prepa- 
rations as  best  he  might.  For  some  time  had  he  been  importuned 
to  bring  new  men  to  his  council-board,  and  Guise  had  suggested 

as  a  candidate  for  the  office  of  keeper  of  the  seals  the 
point's  new       Archbisliop  of  Lyons,  his  own  most  intimate  adviser 

among  churchmen.  With  a  shrewdness  which,  in 
spite  of  his  ordinary  fatuity,  his  majesty  was  occasionally  capa- 
ble of  displaying,  the  king  anticipated  the  complaints  sure  to 
greet  his  ears  when  the  deputies  should  come  together  by  sud- 
denly dismissing  the  responsible  members  of  his  council,  good 
and  bad— Chancellor  Chiverny,  brother-in-law  of  the  historian 
De  Thou,  trusty  Bellievre,  treacherous  Villeroy,  Pinart,  and  all. 
For  them  he  substituted  other  men,  respecting  whom  little  was 
known,  and  who  certainly  were  not  tools  of  his  opponents.  It 
would,  at  all  events,  be  convenient  to  be  able  to  cast  all  the  sins 
of  the  past  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  disgraced  ministers,  and 
to  present  to  the  states  a  body  of  secretaries  against  whom  no 
misdemeanors  in  office  could  be  alleged.  The  court  was  startled 
at  the  unexpected  blow ;  the  poor  secretaries  were  in  despair. 
The  first  intimation  of  it  which  Villeroy  and  his  colleagues  re- 
ceived was  contained  in  a  note  addressed  to  each  one  in  the 
king's  own  handwriting,  after  this  model : 

"  Villeroy,  1  am  very  well  satisfied  with  your  service ;  do 
not,  however,  fail  to  go  away  to  your  house,  where  you  will 
remain  until  I  send  for  you.  Inquire  not  into  the  cause  of 
this  my  writing,  but  obey  me.1' l 

In  vain  did  Bellievre  weep,  and  Pinart  bemoan  his  cruel  lot 
in  words  much  like  the  lament  of  Cardinal  Wolsey.2  The  die 
was  cast.     The  king  had  called,  from  the  Parliament  of  Paris, 


1  Cavriana  to  Serguidi,  September  13,  1588,  Negociations  avec  la  Toscane, 
iv.  822  ;  Cayet,  Chronologie  novenaire,  67. 

-  *'  Se  io  avessi  cosi  bene  servito  Dio  come  ho  il  Re,  mi  troverei  il  piu  fedele 
(felice  ?)  uomo  del  mondo."     Cavriana,  ubi  supra. 


84       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn.  IX. 

Montholon,  a  simple  advocate,  on  whom  he  had  never  laid  his 
eyes,  but  whose  reputation  for  integrity  and  ability  as  a  barrister 
had  reached  him,  and  had,  on  the  sixth  of  September,  com- 
mitted the  seals  to  his  keeping.  Beaulieu-Ruze  and  Revol  had 
succeeded  to  the  places  of  Villeroy,  Pinart,  and  Bruslart.1 

Contemporary   writers  have   described    at   great  length  the 

magnificence  of  the  scene  when  Henry  entered  the  grand  hall  of 

the  castle  of  Blois  in  which  were  gathered  the  depu- 

Opcniiifir  of 

the  states  ties  of  the  three  orders  of  the  kingdom.  One  linn- 
dred  and  thirty-four  ecclesiastics,  including  four  arch- 
bishops and  twenty-one  bishops,  stood  before  him  on  the  right, 
clothed  in  rochet  and  surplice.  They  were  the  representative* 
of  the  powerful  Roman  Catholic  Church.  One  hundred  and 
eighty  noblemen  in  velvet  caps  and  cloaks  were  on  his  majesty's 
left  hand  ;  while,  posted  between  the  other  two  orders  and 
farther  back,  were  the  one  hundred  and  ninety-one  delegates  of 
the  tiers  etat.  The  members  of  the  judiciary  wore  long  gowns 
and  square  caps.  The  provosts,  and  other  royal  officers  were 
distinguishable  by  their  short  gowns  and  small  caps ;  and  the 
rest  were  in  merchant's  dress.  It  was  twelve  years  since  an 
assemblage  of  equal  dignity  had  convened  in  the  same  spacious 
room.2 

Of  all  France,  only  the  Huguenots,  with  their  faithful  ally 
Marshal  Montmorency,  were  unrepresented  in  this  august  gath- 
ering. They  had  wasted  few  words  upon  the  convocation  of 
Blois.     Too  prudent  to  forfeit  any  advantages  that  might  ac- 

1  Cayet  and  Cavriana,  ubi  supra;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  115,  116;  De 
Thou,  vii.  270-273  ;  Mendoza  to  Philip  II.,  October  (September  f)  04.  1588  . 
De  Croze,  ii.  370,  371.  See,  also,  Picot,  Histoire  des  Etats  Geiuraux.  iii.  1*1 
The  letters  patent  appointing  Francois  de  Montholon  "  garde  des  sceaux  "  were 
dated  Blois,  September  G,  1588.  See  Isambert,  Recueil  des  anciennes  Lois 
francaises,  xiv.  623. 

2  Matthieu,  Histoire  des  derniers  troubles  de  France,  fols.  115-117.  gives 
the  most  minute  account  of  the  arrangements,  and  states  the  order  in  which 
the  deputies  were  called.  See.  also,  Cayet,  69,  70,  and  Isambert,  xiv.  623-688. 
The  plan  accompanying  L.  Yitet's  Les  Etats  de  Blois  gives  a  good  idea  of  the 
castle,  of  which  the  room  still  known  as  the  "  Grand'salle  des  Etats"  is  at  the 
northeastern  angle.  The  chambers  occupied  by  the  king  were  near  the  north- 
western corner,  and  communicated  with  the  hall  of  the  states  general  by  the 
"  Gallerie  des  Cerfs." 


1588.  THE  SECOND  STATES  OF  BLOIS.  85 

crue  to  them  from  its  sessions  by  condemning-  it  beforehand, 
they  reserved  to  themselves  the  right  of  rejecting  its  conclu- 
sions as  null  and  void  because  the  Protestants  had  not  been 
invited  to  take  part  in  the  deliberations.1 

The  king's  address  was  a  prolix  but  not  unskilful  production. 
The  strong  professions  of  singleness  of  purpose,  of  devotion  to 
the  interests  of  his  subjects,  of  sorrow  over  the  past  misfortunes 
of  the  people,  and  of  a  firm  determination  to  remedy  prevailing- 
disorders,  were  those  which  might  have  been  expected  from  a 
prince  as  hypocritical  as  he  was  selfish.  Nor  was  it  strange 
that  such  a  son  should  lavish  praise  upon  the  mother,  now  tot- 
tering on  the  verge  of  the  grave,  from  whom  he  had 

The  king's  re-    .    ,        .       ,      ,  ,    °  i      Pi  i  -it-  t 

newed  expres-  inherited  the  character  that  has  rendered  mm  odious 

eions   of   hos-    _  __     ,  'i»i-  •  ,    c 

tiiity  to  the  for  all  time.  More  important  tor  our  present  purpose 
are  those  expressions  which  cannot  be  suspected  of  in- 
sincerity, wherein  Henry  gave  utterance  to  his  sentiments  re- 
specting the  toleration  of  the  Huguenots  and  their  religion. 

"  Favor,  I  pray  you,  my  good  subjects,"  he  said,  "  my  upright 
intention,  which  tends  only  to  cause  the  glory  of  God  and  of 
our  holy  Catholic,  Apostolic,  and  Roman  religion  to  shine  forth 
more  resplendent,  to  extirpate  heresy  from  all  the  provinces  of 
this  kingdom,  to  re-establish  good  order,  to  relieve  my  poor 
people  nowT  so  greatly  oppressed,  and  to  raise  up  my  own  au- 
thority nowT  so  unjustly  abased." 

To  the  same  topic  he  again  adverted.  "  The  evidence  is 
sufficiently  well  known  and  can  be  given  even  by  some  of  you 
who  have  honored  yourselves  in  assisting  me  therein,  both  be- 
fore and  since  I  became  your  king,  as  to  the  zeal  and  steadfast- 
ness with  which  I  have  ever  proceeded  to  the  extirpation  of 
heresy  and  of  the  heretics.  In  this  work  I  shall  more  than  ever 
expose  my  life,  even  to  a  certain  death,  if  that  be  necessary,  for 
the  defence  and  protection  of  our  holy  Catholic,  Apostolic,  and 
Roman  faith.  The  proudest  tomb  in  which  I  could  be  buried 
would  be  amid  the  ruins  of  heresy." 


1  See  Duplessis  Mornay's  reasons  for  refusing  to  write  against  the  states  gen- 
eral, as  reported  in  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste  sur  la  vie  de  Duplessis 
Mornay  son  mari  (Paris,  1824),  166. 


86       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cil  IX. 

"  Not  only,"  continued  Henry,  "  are  the  battles  which  I 
have  gained  a  sufficient  proof,  but  that  great  army  of  the  reit- 
ers,  whose  glory  the  Divine  goodness  chose  me  to  humble,  to 
the  honor  of  God's  holy  name  and  of  His  Church.  Of  this 
thing  the  trophies  and  the  spoils  remain  in  the  sight  of  all  men. 
Will  there  be  found,  then,  minds  so  incapable  of  cherishing  the 
truth  as  to  credit  the  statement  that  any  one  else  is  more  in- 
flamed with  the  desire  to  compass  the  final  extirpation  of  the 
heretics,  whereas  no  more  certain  effects  have  resulted  than 
those  that  have  flowed  from  my  efforts  ?  Even  if  the  honor 
of  God,  which  is  dearer  to  me  than  my  own  life,  were  of  less 
importance  than  it  is  in  my  esteem — whose  is  the  patrimony 
w7hich  the  heretics  seize  and  dissipate  ?  Whose  revenues  arc 
they  exhausting ?  Whose  subjects  do  they  alienate?  Whose 
obedience  do  they  despise  ?  Whose  respect,  authority,  and 
dignity  do  they  violate  ?  And  should  not  I  desire  their  ruin  at 
least  as  much  as  any  one  else '( 

"The  reuniting  of  all  my  Catholic  subjects,  by  means  of  the 
holy  Edict  which  I  have  made  within  a  few  months,  has  borne 
sufficient  testimony  to  this,  and  has  proved  that  I  have  nothing 
more  at  heart  than  to  see  God  alone  honored,  revered,  and 
served  in  my  kingdom.  And  this  I  should  have  continued  to 
show,  as  I  shall  always  do,  at  the  risk  of  my  life,  had  it  not  been 
for  this  division  among  Catholics,  which  has  been  productive  of 
incredible  advantage  to  the  party  of  the  heretics,  inasmuch  as  it 
has  prevented  me  from  marching  into  Poitou,  where  I  believe 
that  good  fortune  would  not  have  forsaken  me  any  more  than 
in  other  places  from  which,  thanks  be  to  God,  my  state  has 
drawn  the  desired  and  necessary  benefit,'' 

Nor  did  Henry  of  Valois  forget  the  popular  apprehension  of 

a   possible  Huguenot  succession.      "  The    just  fear,"   said  he, 

"  which  you  may  have  of  falling,   after  my    death, 

a  Huguenot     under  the  rule  of  a  heretical   king,  should   God  so 

successor.  ._  .  . 

determine  as  not  to  give  me  issue,  is  not  more 
rooted  in  your  hearts  than  in  mine.  And  I  protest  before 
God,  that  I  am  not  more  desirous  of  my  salvation  than  I  am 
to  remove  the  fear  and  the  reality  of  this  consummation.  It 
is  for  this  reason  principally,  and  for  the  purpose  of  abolish- 


1588.  THE  SECOND   STATES   OF  BLOIS.  87 

ing  this  damnable  heresy,  that  I  enacted  my  holy  Edict  of 
Union."  ' 

In  such  unmistakable  terms  did  the  king,  even  now,  and  after 
a  bitter  experience  of  the  conspiracy  of  the  League,  abetted  by 
a  goodly  part  of  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy,  signify  his  relent- 
less hatred  of  the  Reformed  faith  and  its  professors.  Certainly 
the  ringleader  in  the  massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew's  Day 
showed  no  signs  of  amiable  weakness  for  the  Protestants,  vic- 
tims of  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  persecution.  The  war  for 
their  extermination  must  be  carried  on  to  its  bitter  end. 

The  royal  speech,  in  addition  to  all  its  orthodox  professions, 

contained   a  distinct  invitation  to  the  members  of  the  states 

general  to  join  with  his  majesty,  on  the  succeeding  Tuesday,  in 

a  solemn  renewal  of  the  pledge  to  maintain  the  intol- 

Renewal  of  .  r  i  •  i 

the  oath  to      erant  Edict.     As  if  the  process  or  heaping  oath  upon 

the  Edict  of  .    r  .  r     i  t 

union  pro-      oath  could  add  to  the  inviolable  character  or  the  dis- 


graceful statute,  of  which  it  was  proposed  to  make 
a  fundamental  law  of  the  kingdom,  this  new  device  was  re- 
sorted to  for  the  purpose  of  making  an  impression  upon  the 
people.  Wise  men  only  doubted  the  more  what  the  issue 
would  be.2  And  this  all  the  more,  because  it  was  no  secret 
that  only  under  dire  compulsion  had  Henry  consented  to  the 
step  of  repeating  the  oath  he  had  taken  at  Rouen  ;  a  step  hu- 
miliating to  his  self-respect,  and  shameful  in  one  pretending  to 
be  a  free  monarch.  At  first  he  had  positively  refused.  He 
even  answered  the  deputies  that  came  to  him  "  with  words 
sufficiently  sharp." 3  He  yielded  only  on  learning  that  the 
states  general  were  determined  to  break  up,  rather  than  yield 
the  point.4 

!  The  king's  speech  is  given  in  full  by  Matthieu,  Histoire  des  derniers 
troubles,  fols.  119-124  ;  more  correctly  by  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  524- 
535.     Synopses  are  given  by  De  Thou,  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  etc. 

2  "  II  y  en  eut  qui  trouvoient  cette  reiteration  de  mauvaise  grace,  commene 
se  perdant  la  virginite  de  la  foi  qu'un  coup  seulement."  Agrippa  d'Aubigne^ 
iii.  123. 

3  "  Paroles  assez  aygres." 

4  It  is  Guise  that  gives  ^^s  this  information  in  two  postscripts,  under  date  of 
October  16th,  to  his  letter  of  October  13,  1588,  to  Bernardino  de  Mendoza, 
De  Croze,  ii.  370,  371.     He  chuckles  over  his  success  in  having  so  handled 


SS        THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

Henry  having  concluded,  Montholon,  Keeper  of  the  Seals, 
who  sat  in  front  of  his  majesty,  proceeded  to  deliver  an  oration 
intended  to  set  forth  more  fully  his  master's  purpose.  It  cer- 
speech  of  tainly  could  not  be  alleged  that  the  new  head  of  the 
ke^per^T'  judiciary  of  France  was  deficient  in  classic  or  in  sa- 
cred learning ;  for  in  urging  the  utility  of  the  insti- 
tution of  the  states  general,  the  speaker  took  occasion  to  draw 
his  illustrations  indiscriminately  from  every  quarter.  Good 
King  Asa,  Saint  Paul,  Childebert,  Clotaire  the  Second  and 
Dagobert  the  First,  Pepin,  Charlemagne,  and  Saint  Louis  fig- 
ured side. by  side  with  the  Assyrian  and  Persian  monarchs  and 
Saint  Augustine. 

Nor  did  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges,  the  representative  of 
the  clergy,  who  spoke  next,  prove  unequal  to  the  demands  of 
the  occasion.     He  appealed  to  Henry  of  Yalois — pos 

Speech  of  the  L  r.  *  r 

Archbishop     sessed,  as  was  that  prince,  or  the  sagacity  of  L  lysses 

of  Bourges.  '  l  '  f  J  •> 

as  well  as  or  the  grave  eloquence  of  JNestor,  and  as- 
sisted by  the  prudence  of  that  so  virtuous  and  renowned  prin- 
cess, his  mother,  who  might  well  be  styled  Irene,  lady  of 
peace  and  tranquillity — to  raise  up  France,  now  lying  prostrate 
after  twenty-eight  years  of  disastrous  war.  Thus  would  he  ac- 
quire all  the  glorious  titles  lavished  by  grateful  antiquity  upon 
Hercules,  Theseus,  and  other  heroes  and  demi-gods  who  freed 
the  world  from  giants,  monsters,  and  other  enemies  of  God  and 
of  the  human  race.  Having  taken  good  care  to  master  his  sub- 
ject, the  good  prelate  was  not  satisfied  until  he  had  expended 
upon  his  devoted  hearers  all  his  erudition,  purchased,  doubt- 
less, at  the  cost  of  many  nights  of  assiduous  research.  Unfort- 
unate, indeed,  was  the  eastern  king,  or  the  Roman  emperor, 
whose  name  was  not  dragged  into  the  discussion,  to  meet  the 
ravenous  appetite  of  the  age  for  pedantic  allusion.  The  arch- 
bishop extolled  the  wisdom  displayed  by  the  king  in  dissipating 
the  army  of  German  reiters  and  Swiss  pikemen,  so  lately  come 
into  France.  He  expressed  the  confident  hope  that,  under  so 
good  and  great  a  king  as  Henry,  the  audacious  heretics  would 


(manie)  the  states,  and  adds:  "  Les  estatz  persistent  en  leur  resolucion  et  plus 
tost  de  rompre  que  d'en  rabatre." 


1588.  THE  SECOND   STATES   OF   BLOIS.  89 

find  themselves  repressed,  and  brought  under  the  yoke  of  God, 
the  Catholic  Church,  and  the  king.  Then  would  peace  return 
and  universal  security.  Then  would  every  man  sit  under  his 
own  vine  and  fig-tree.  Then  would  the  demolished  churches 
be  rebuilt.  Then  would  the  cities  be  freed  from  the  sound  of 
arquebuse  and  drum  ;  then  would  the  temple  of  war  be  closed. 

Was  it  intentional  irony,  or  was  the  speaker  carried  away  by 
his  eloquence,  when,  in  his  peroration,  he  exclaimed,  with  much 
apparent  unction  :  "  O  king,  may  you  live  forever  !  May  you 
live  here  below  the  years  of  JSestor — nay,  the  years  of  Argan- 
thonius  of  Gades,  who  lived  ninescore  years !  ■  Live,  repre- 
sented by  the  succession  of  a  long  posterity !  Live  here  below 
by  your  name,  and  the  glory  of  your  virtue,  which  shall  never 
die  !  At  the  last,  live  above  in  the  skies,  not  as  an  earthly 
king,  but  as  a  partaker  and  fellow-heir  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  whither  He  calls  all  those  who  have  governed  well  His 
subjects  here  below !  " 

The  addresses  of  the  Baron  of  Sennecey  and  of  the  Prevot 
des  Marchands  of  Paris,  in  behalf  of  the  nobility  and  the  peo- 
ple, echoed  the  sentiments  expressed  by  the  delegate 

Speeches  of        r      \  r  _ f  ° 

Baron  Senne-  ot  the  clergy,  and  lauded  the  monarch  s  determma- 

cey  and  the  °' J\ 

Prevot  des      tion  to  expel  heresy,  and  to  restore  the  supremacy  of 

Marchands 

the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Both  orders  pledged 
themselves  to  expose  their  lives  to  every  peril,  and  to  pour  out 
the  very  last  drop  of  blood  to  secure  the  success  of  this  merito- 
rious undertaking. 

This  much  for  Sunday's  work.  When,  two  days  later,  the 
states  general  assembled  a  second  time,  not  only  did  Henry  and 
The  Edict  of  the  three  orders  again  solemnly  swear  to  maintain 
S^m  tfoc-  tlie  Edict  of  Union,2  but  his  majesty  caused  a  fresh 
toberi8,i5«8.  r0yal  declaration,  upon  the  same  subject,  to  be  read 
aloud  by  one  of  his  secretaries,  proclaiming  the  edict  to  be 
henceforth  a  fundamental   and  irrevocable  law  of  the  king- 

1  "  Vivez  Roy, "  disoit-il,  "  vivez  eternellement !  Vivez  §a  bas  les  ans  de 
Nestor,  voire  ceux  d'Arganthonius,  Roy  de  Gadar,  qui  vescut  neuf  vingts 
ans !  " 

9  "Mettant  par  les  ecclesiastiques,  les  mains  a  la  poictrine,  ettous  les  autres, 
levans  les  mains  au  ciel."     Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  553. 


90       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

dom.1  After  which,  the  whole  body  of  those  present,  including 
the  king,  the  queens — his  mother  and  wife — with  princes,  car- 
dinals, and  other  dignitaries,  proceeded  to  the  Church  of  the 
Holy  Saviour,  there  to  listen  to  the  chanting  of  a  solemn 
Te  Deum.  The  people  accompanied  the  king  as  he  went  with 
loud  cries  of  "  Vive  le  Roy  ! "  and  displayed,  we  are  told,  ex- 
treme joy  and  gladness.2 

There  were  those,  however,  to  whom  the  royal  speech  at  the 
opening  of  the  states  general  was  not  a  source  of  unmingled  satis- 
Annoyance  of  facti°n-  A  sentence  or  two  had  dropped  from  Hen- 
the  Guises.  ry?s  iipS  betraying  the  deep  resentment  he  cherished 
against  the  authors  of  the  present  disturbed  condition  of  the 
kingdom.  He  went  out  of  his  way  to  say  that,  had  he  not  been 
anticipated  and  hindered  by  the  inordinate  ambition  of  some  of 
his  subjects,  he  felt  sure  that  the  new  religion  would  by  this 
time  have  been  altogether  exterminated  from  France.3  lie  cast 
a  slur  upon  the  intriguing  authors  of  the  Roman  Catholic  con- 
federacy at  the  very  moment  when  he  ostentatiously  pardoned 
their  offences.  "  Certain  great  personages  of  my  kingdom,"  said 
he,  "  have  entered  into  leagues  and  associations,  but,  evidencing 
my  accustomed  goodness,  I  tread  under  my  feet,  in  this  respect, 
all  that  is  past."  4  The  reference  to  Guise  and  his  followers 
was  unmistakable.  The  insult  was  insupportable.  To  be  held 
up  to  the  world's  gaze  as  guilty  of  treason,  even  if  the  treason 
was  condoned,  and  this,  too,  in  the  very  hour  of  triumph,  was 
more  than  the  proud  spirit  of  an  aspirant  to  the  throne  could 
brook.  The  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  pliant  tool  of  the  conspir- 
ators, was  sent  to  remonstrate  with  the  king,  to  threaten  and 
bluster  in  the  royal  cabinet,  until  the  weak  Valois,  reud< 

1  "  Declaration  du  Roy  sur  son  Edit  de  bunion  de  tous  ses  subjets  Catbo- 
liques,"  Blois,  October  18,  1588,  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  545-571,  and  in 
Isambert,  xiv.  629,  630. 

'2  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  554,  555. 

3  "  Que  s'il  n'eust  este  prevenu  et  empeche  par  l'ambition  demesuree  de 
quelques  siens  subjects,  il  s'assuroit  que  la  religion  nouvelle  eust  este  lors  tout 
a  fait  exterminee  de  la  France."     See  Pasquier,  apud  Lestoile,  i.  204. 

4  "Aucuns  grands  de  mon  royaume  out  faict  des  ligues  et  associations: 
mais,  tesmoignant  ma  bonte  accoustumee,  je  mets  sous  le  pied,  pour  ce  regard, 
tout  le  passe."     Cayet,  Chrouologie  Sovenaire,  72. 


158S.  THE  SECOND  STATES  OF  BLOIS.  91 

still  weaker  by  the  persuasions  of  a  mother  who  always  sided 
with  the  enemy,  consented  to  permit  the  obnoxious  phrases  to 
be  erased  from  the  report  of  his  speech  already  printed  and 
ready  for  publication.1  Henry's  reluctant  acquiescence  in  so 
humiliating  a  change  has  been  regarded  as  a  strong  proof  that 
he  had  already  formed  a  deliberate  plan  of  the  tragic  events 
which  occurred  a  little  more  than  two  months  later.  But  the 
very  boldness  he  displayed  in  affronting  Guise  at  the  opening 
of  the  states  general,  before  an  assembly  in  which  the  duke's 
sympathizers  were  known  to  be  in  the  majority,  would  seem  to 
indicate,  on  the  contrary,  that  he  had  as  yet  adopted  no  definite 
scheme  which  might  be  thwarted  by  an  untimely  display  of  ill- 
will.2  It  seems  more  than  probable  that  —despite  his  intense 
and  inextinguishable  hatred  of  Guise,  despite,  too,  his  settled 
and  sullen  determination  to  be  avenged  on  him,  for  the  gross 
insults  he  had  received  at  his  hands,  when  the  best  moment  for 
striking  a  blow  with  safety  to  himself  should  have  arrived — 
Henry  had  not  yet  mustered  the  courage,  much  less  elaborated 
the  details,  necessary  for  the  execution  of  his  sanguinary  proj- 
ects. The  kings  of  the  sixteenth  century,  no  less  than  the 
ruling  statesmen  of  our  own  times,  frequently  received  credit 
for  greater  foresight  and  larger  plans  than  they  were  actually 
entitled  to.3 


1  Lestoile  and  Cayet,  ubi  supra  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  (book  92)  286,  287.  Strange 
to  say,  the  historian  Davila  (book  9,  p.  359)  maintains  that  the  statement  that 
Henry,  yielding  to  the  archbishop's  importunity,  omitted  many  things  from 
his  printed  speech  which  he  had  uttered  in  the  public  meeting  of  the  states, 
is  altogether  incorrect.  He  affirms  that  he  was  himself  present,  and  so  near  to 
his  majesty  that  he  heard  every  word  ;  that  he  is  certain  that  as  much  was 
printed  as  was  spoken  ;  and  that  the  king  s  u  expressions,  being  quickened  by 
the  efficacy  of  his  action  and  the  tone  of  his  voice,  were  much  more  sharp  and 
moving  than  when  they  came  forth  in  print,  wanting  that  life  and  spirit  with 
which  they  were  delivered."  '2  De  Thou,  vii.   322. 

3  Agrippa  d  Aubigne  s  remarks  upon  this  point  (iii.  114)  are  as  the  remarks 
of  this  forcible  writer  will  so  frequently  be  found,  well  worthy  of  quotation  : 
'•  Le  Roi  emploioit  le  temps,  les  ruses  et  les  finances  a  endormir  ses  ennemis, 
soit  (comme  quelques  uns  ont  estime)  avec  dessein  arreste  de  les  empoigner  a. 
la  pipee  des  Estats,  soit  (comme  autres  ont  juge)  que  ce  fust  pour  rouler  au 
jour  la  journee,  dessein  sans  dessein,  et  pensee  plus  coutumiere  aux  Rois  que 
ne  cuident  ceux  qui  en  vivent  esloignez." 


92       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

Meantime,  while  there  were  some  humiliating  concession.- 
which  Henry  was  willing  to  make — striking  out  the  allusions 
The  clergy  to  tne  Gmses  from  his  printed  speech,  as  wo  have 
Navarre  de™  Just  seen>  aiic*  submitting  to  the  indignity  of  being  re- 
pScrfsuc-  <luired  to  repeat  his  oath  to  observe  the  Edict  of 
ceeding.  Union,  as  though  he  might  take  it  into  his  head  to 
violate  the  oath  to  the  same  effect  more  privately  taken  three 
months  before  at  Rouen — he  was  less  inclined  to  yield  to  certain 
other  demands.  The  clergy,  early  in  November,  took  the  initi- 
ative against  the  King  of  Navarre,  whom  it  pronounced  to  be  a 
relapsed  heretic,  and  declared  to  have  forfeited  the  succes.-ion  to 
the  throne.  The  other  orders  followed  the  lead  of  the  clergy, 
and  the  Archbishop  of  Embrun,  a  noted  Leaguer,  was  commis- 
sioned to  carry  the  common  decisions  of  the  three  estates  to 
the  king  for  approval.  But  for  such  action,  even  against  a 
prince  upon  whom  he  wasted  little  love,  Henry  was  by  no  means 
ready.  He  objected  with  good  reason  that  the  forms  of  ju- 
dicial procedure  had  not  been  observed ;  nay,  that  it  was  out 
of  the  question  to  condemn  as  a  heretic  one  who  profe* 
himself  ready  to  receive  instruction.  And  so,  although  the 
churchmen  continued  to  urge  their  point,  the  king  pat  off  all 
decisive  action  in  the  matter.1 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  course  of  Guise  was  alto- 
gether plain  and  easy.  The  States  of  Blois,  devoted  as  they 
were  to  the  duke,  whom  in  most  things  they  regarded  a-  their 
champion,  had  well-defined  views  of  their  own  on  some  point.-, 
and  neither  he  nor  his  brother,  the  cardinal,  could  move  them. 
The  tiers  etat  The  tiers  etat  proposed  that  the  king  be  requ< 
dfSnatio^of  to  diminish  the  hateful  load  of  taxation  that  ground 
the  taxes.  tjie  miseraDie  people  to  the  earth,  and  called  for  the 
institution  of  a  new  tribunal  which  should  compel  the  plethoric 
farmers  of  the  public  revenues  to  disgorge  their  ill-gotten 
wealth.  The  clergy  and  the  nobles  promptly  supported  the 
demand.  In  vain  did  Catharine  de'  Medici  send  for  some  of 
the  most  prominent  deputies  and  remonstrate  with  them  on 
their  course.     In  vain  did  her  son  fume,  and  fret,  and  ply  one 

1  De  Thou,  vii.  310,  311. 


1588.  THE  SECOND  STATES   OF  BLOIS.  93 

and  another  of  the  refractory  commoners  with  threats  and  with 
promises.  Neither  the  king,  nor  Guise,  who,  fearful  of  the 
ulterior  consequences,  besought  them  to  modify  their  project, 
nor  the  cardinal,  who  declared  that  they  would  ruin  France, 
could  move  them.  So,  finally,  his  majesty,  making  a  virtue 
of  necessity,  gracefully  yielded  the  point.  "  I  grant  your  re- 
quests," he  suddenly  exclaimed  ;  but  when  the  surprise,  and 
the  rapturous  applause,  and  the  loud  cries  of  "  Long  life  to  the 
king ! "  had  ceased,  and  quiet  was  restored,  he  took  good  care 
to  add  that  he  made  the  concession  on  condition  that  the  states 
should  provide  for  the  crown's  necessities  and  for  the  prosecu- 
tion of  the  war,  according  to  their  own  promises.  Meanwhile 
he  was  profuse  in  his  expressions  of  the  trust  he  reposed  in  the 
representatives  of  his  people.  He  would  have  the  money-chest 
containing  the  funds  to  carry  on  the  war  against  the  heretics 
to  be  made  secure  with  two  locks.  The  states  should  have  the 
one  key  and  he  the  other.  lie  swore  that  without  their  con- 
sent he  would  impose  no  burden  upon  his  people.  He  told 
them,  confidentially,  that  some  members  of  his  council  objected 
to  all  this,  and  warned  him  that  he  was  fashioning  France  after 
the  republic  of  Venice,  and  hampering  himself  till  he  might 
become  another  doge,  and  his  kingdom  be  transformed  into  a 
state  half -democratic.  "  But,"  said  he,  very  magnanimously,  "  I 
shall  do  it."  His  tone,  however,  changed  very  materially  when 
the  states  failed  to  redeem  their  promise  to  supply  his  pressing- 
needs  ;  apparently  unmoved  by  the  pathetic  picture  he  drew  of 
his  purveyor  refusing  to  provide  food  for  the  royal  table,  and  of 
the  choristers  of  his  chapel  leaving  his  service  for  lack  of  wages.1 
More  embarrassing,  however,  than  the  indocilitv  of  Guise's 
own  party  at  home  was  the  clumsiness  of  his  allies  abroad. 
The  Duke  of  The  very  moment  when  it  was  important  for  the  pur- 
uLVMarquises  poses  of  the  League  that  nothing  should  occur  to  dis- 
,eofSaiuzzo.  tract  t]ie  p0pU]ar  attention,  much  less  by  any  acci- 
dent to  kindle  into  flame  the  long  dormant  fire  of  patriotism, 

1  See  Picot,  Histoire  des  Etats  Generaux,  iii.  117-133.  This  writer  has 
ahly,  though,  perhaps,  somewhat  too  strongly  painted  the  picture  of  the  cour- 
age of  the  states  general  and  their  manly  independence  even  of  the  Duke  of 
Guise. 


94       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

was  chosen  by  the  Duke  of  Savoy  for  an  ill-timed  invasion  of 
the  Marquisate  of  Saluzzo  or  Saluces.  This  district,  which  had 
for  many  years  been  in  the  possession  of  the  French,  had  long 
been  regarded  with  covetous  eyes  by  Charles  Emmanuel,  be- 
cause of  its  situation  on  the  Italian  slope  of  the  Maritime 
Alps  and  Monte  Yiso,  and  because  of  its  tempting  proximity 
to  Turin.  When  the  duke  suddenly  entered  it,  the  King  of 
France  was  easily  persuaded  that  the  blow  at  the  integrity  of 
his  realm  had  been  struck  through  the  instigation  of  Henry 
of  Guise.  His  council,  the  loyal  party  throughout  France, 
above  all,  the  Huguenots,  were  confident  that  they  saw  in  the 
act  only  another  of  the  stealthy  moves  of  the  calculating 
League.  The  more  Guise  and  his  followers  protested  their 
innocence,  the  more  fully  was  the  world  persuaded  of  their 
complicity.  One  thing  was  sure,  and  that  was  that  for  a  few 
days  it  seemed  probable  that  this  act  of  aggression  from  with- 
out would  lead  to  a  restoration  of  peace  within  the  kingdom. 
"  It  will  be  time  enough  to  cross  swords  with  the  Huguenots 
when  we  shall  have  driven  the  insolent  invader  from  our  soil." 
Such  was  the  cry  of  the  best  part  of  France,  and,  apparently,  of 
no  inconsiderable  part  of  the  deputies  at  Blois.  Henry  of  Valois 
for  a  moment  imagined  that  this  would  be  the  prevailing  sen- 
timent of  the  states  general.  But  no!  The  Guises  resisted 
with  all  their  might  and  prevailed.  "We  must  first  make  pro- 
vision," said  they,  "for  the  heart  of  the  kingdom,  and  remove 
the  heresy  which  now  afflicts  it;  afterward  we  shall  easily 
drive  off  the  foreigners  who  have  made  attempts  upon  the 
frontiers."  And  the  duke  himself  called  upon  his  majesty  to 
secure  to  the  pious  French  the  fruits  they  had  expected  to 
gain  from  the  oath  of  the  holy  Union,  volunteering  the  promise 
that,  when  once  the  Huguenots  should  be  extirpated,  he  would 
himself  be  the  first  to  cross  the  Alps  and  compel  the  Savoyard 
to  make  restitution,  should  the  king  be  pleased  to  honor  him 
with  a  commission.1  As  the  Huguenots  had  held  out  already 
almost  a  full  generation,  the  contingency  referred  to  did  not 
appear  a  very  near  one  to  his  royal  auditor,  nor  was  he  likely 
to  be  profuse  in  his  thanks. 

1  Cayet,  Chronologie  novenaire,  74. 


1588.  THE  SECOND  STATES  OF  BLOIS.  95 

It  is  interesting,  however,  to  note  at  this  point  that  Henry  of 
Valois,  the  patriots,  and  the  Huguenots  were  mistaken  ;  and 
that  the  mendacious  Duke  of  Guise  spoke  the  truth.  The 
correspondence  he  maintained  with  the  Spanish  ambassador — 
The  Duke  of  a  correspondence  whose  publication  the  duke  would 
Guise  not       have  been  the  very  last  to  desire — demonstrates  his 

privy  to  the  •> 

enterprise.  innocence  of  any  understanding  that  Charles  Emman- 
uel should  invade  Saluzzo  at  this  juncture.  Indeed,  it  reveals 
instead  the  fact  that  Guise  was  greatly  annoyed  at  the  unex- 
pected news  which  reached  him,  and  sought  in  every  practi- 
cable maimer  to  have  the  blunder  retrieved.  When  the  first 
tidings  were  received,  he  wrote,  in  great  anxiety,  to  Philip's 
ambassador :  "  I  fear  that  this  accident  of  Carmagnola  may 
defeat  all  my  intentions  and  plans,  and  that  the  king  may  seize 
the  opportunity  to  come  to  an  agreement  with  the  heretics,  so  as 
to  make  war  with  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  This  would  kindle  a  fire 
which  it  would  not  be  easy  to  extinguish,  and  would  undoubt- 
edly bring  the  ruin  of  Christendom  and  the  overthrow  of  our 
religion.  I  beg  you  to  consider  this  matter,  and  see  whether 
there  be  any  means  of  pacifying  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  in  order 
that  we  may  follow  out  the  course  we  are  here  pursuing."  1 
"  Everything  was  going  well,"  the  duke  despondingly  exclaimed, 
a  few  days  later.  "  We  should  have  obtained  a  fresh  confirma- 
tion of  the  edict,  the  oath  of  the  king,  open  war  with  the  here- 
tics to  their  utter  destruction.  Soon  even  the  heretics  of  En^- 
land  and  Germany  would  have  been  ruined.  To-day  our  plans 
are  so  frustrated  that  a  great  number  of  the  deputies  are  in 
favor  of  a  general  peace  with  the  Huguenots,  for  the  purpose 
of  uniting  with  them  ;  which  thing  will  lead  to  the  utter  desola- 
tion of  religion.  All  good  people  would  be  infinitely  obliged 
to  the  Catholic  King,  if,  before  it  be  too  late,  he  should  bring 
about  an  accommodation."  2 

But  if  Henry  of  Yalois  and  his  more  faithful  counsellors,  as 
well  as  the  greater  number  of  historians  who  have  since  touched 


1  Mucius  (Guise)  to  Mendoza,  October  9,  1588,  De  Croze,  ii.  366. 
8  Same  to  same,  October  13,  1588  ;  ibid.,  ii.  369,  370.    It  will  be  noticed  that 
this  was  written  before  the  king's  opening  speech. 


96       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

upon  the  matter,  were  mistaken  in  believing  that  the  invasion 
of  Saluzzo  was  an  act  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  instigated  by  the 
Thekingre-  Duke  °f  Guise,  and  intended  to  further  the  success  of 
thJTnurde"  tne  ambitious  designs  of  the  latter  in  his  struggle  with 
of  Guise.  £}ie  cr0Wn,  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  this  —  that 
no  other  belief  was  more  potent  in  determining  his  majesty  to 
hesitate  no  longer  to  rid  himself  of  his  turbulent  and  disloyal 
subject.  It  may  well  be  (if  we  are  to  give  so  faithless  and  con- 
temptible a  personage  as  Henry  the  Third  credit  for  entertain- 
ing any  conscientious  scruples)  that  the  king  fancied  himself 
fully  released  from  every  oath  he  had  taken  in  favor  of  the  duke, 
by  Guise's  continued  violation  of  his  own  equally  solemn  en- 
gagements, and  by  the  intrigues  at  home  and  abroad  in  which 
his  hand  was  ever  discovered  or  suspected.1  For  the  sake  of 
securing  undisturbed  tranquillity,  a  monarch,  indolent  beyond 
others,  might  have  overlooked,  even  could  he  not  forget,  past 
insults  ;  but  here  was  a  subject  who,  so  long  as  he  was  alive, 
would  not  allow  his  master  to  indulge  the  faintest  hope  of 
future  quiet.  There  was  no  help  for  it.  Such  a  restless  con- 
spirator must  be  summarily  put  out  of  the  way,  the  most  sacred 
promises,  made  upon  the  holy  sacrament,  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding. In  the  expressive  words  of  a  contemporary  his- 
torian, whom  no  writer  of  his  own  day,  and  few  writers  of  a 
later  day,  have  excelled  in  nervous  vigor  of  diction,  the  Duke  of 
Guise,  absolved  of  past  offences,  was  condemned  to  death  for 
the  crimes  he  wras  about  to  commit.3 

Of  warnings  the  king  had  had  no  lack.  Unless  Charles  of 
Mayenne  be  a  much  maligned  man,  Henry  of  Valois  had  re- 
™   „  „. -a      ceived   accusations   of  Guise's    ambition    even    from 

Mayenne  is 

s^d  to  have     Guise's  own  brother.     I  would  fain  believe,  witli  the 

warned  the 

king.  generous  historian  to  whom  reference  has  just  been 

made,  that  the  story  was  afterward  discovered  to  be  an  inven- 
tion ; 3  certain  is  it,  however,  that  not  only  did  writers  of  tried 

1  Cayet,  Chronologie  novenaire,  75. 

2  "  Le  due  de  Guise,  absous  des  offenses  passees,  tut  condaninc'  a  mart  pour 
les  crimes  a  venir."     Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  150. 

3  "Quelques  uns  ont  mis  le  due  de  Maienne  an  nombre  des  avertisseur?, 
mais  apres  une  bonne  perquisition  on  a  trouve  que  non.M     Ibid.,  iii.   149. 


1588.  ASSASSINATION   OF   THE  GUISES.  97 

impartiality,  like  De  Thou,  but  sceptical  diplomatists,  like  the 
envoys  of  Florence  and  of  Philip  the  Second,  give  full  credence 
to  it.  "  Receiving  advices,"  says  Cavriana,  "  almost  every  day 
from  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  brother  of  the  deceased,  and  this 
by  the  medium  of  Alphonso,  colonel  of  the  Corsicans,  the  king 
was  compelled  to  secure  himself  and  his  states." '  According 
to  Mendoza's  statement  in  a  despatch  to  his  royal  master  at 
Madrid,  Henry  called  upon  the  colonel  in  the  presence  of  the 
council  itself,  saying  :  "  Seigneur  Alphonso,  repeat  to  the  coun- 
cil what  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  instructed  you  to  tell  me." 
Whereupon  Alphonso  came  forward  and  declared  that  the  Duke 
of  Mayenne  had  accused  his  brother  of  having  resolved  upon  a 
resort  to  the  last  extremities  against  the  king,  with  the  inten- 
tion of  taking  his  crown  from  him.2 

Henry  of  Yalois  himself  positively  asserted  the  fact  that  he 
received  a  direct  warning  from  Mayenne,  and  that,  too,  in  the 
very  "  Declaration  "  which  he  issued,  two  months  later,  enjoin- 
ing that  the  duke  be  proceeded  against  as  a  traitor,  and  pre- 
tended to  give  the  substance,  if  not  the  very  words,  of  the  mes- 
sage that  was  sent  to  him.3 

Guise,  on  his  side,  had  had  an  abundance  of  prudent  advice, 
which  had  shared  the  ordinary  fate  of  such  sensible  counsel, 
conference  ^  conference  had  even  been  held  by  the  heads  of  the 
respecting      League  to  decide  whether  it  were  not  better  for  him 

Guise  s  move-  o 

ments.  to  retire  from  Blois.     But  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons 

had  opposed  this  step,  and  had  pointed  out  the  disastrous  re- 
sults that  might  follow.  The  duke  would  be  accused  of  being 
a   disturber   of   the   public  peace.     Besides,  he   reminded  his 

1  Cavriana  to  Serguidi,  Blois,  December  31,  1588 ;  Negociations  avec  la 
Toscane,  iv.  848. 

2Mendoza  to  Philip  II.,  Saint  Die,  December  27,  1588,  De  Croze,  ii.  386. 
Compare  De  Thou,  vii.  322-5  ;  and  Lestoile,  i.  266,  267. 

3  "Peu  de  jours  auparavant  sa  mort  [sc.  de  Guise],  icelui  due  de  Mayenne, 
entr'autres  choses  nous  manda  par  un  chevalier  d'honneur  qu'il  nous  envoya 
expres,  que  ce  nVtoit  pas  assez  a  son  frere  de  porter  des  patenotres  au  col,  mais 
qu'il  falloit  avoir  une  ame  et  une  conscience  ;  que  nous  prissions  bien  garde 
a  nous  et  que  le  terme  etoit  si  brief,  et  que  s'il  ne  se  hatoit,  il  etoit 

bien  a  craindre  qu'il  narriveroit  pas  assez  a  temps."     Declaration  against  the 
Dukes  of  Mayenne  and  Aumale,  Blois,  February,  1589,  Isambert,  xiv.  638. 
Vol.  II.  —  7 


08       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn  IX 

hearers,  the  common  saying  is  that  he  who  gives  up  the  game 
loses  it.  Thus  fortified  in  his  resolve,  Guise  declared  that  lie 
would  rather  die  a  hundred  deaths  than  be  the  cause  of  dis- 
organizing such  an  assembly  as  was  the  gathering  of  the  states 
general.  Moreover,  had  he  a  hundred  lives,  he  would  freely 
sacrifice  them  to  be  the  means  of  giving  some  rest  to  the  poor 
people  of  France,  so  grievously  afflicted.  "  And,  in  addition  to 
this,"  said  he,  "  I  shall  never  believe  that  the  king,  who  i 
good  a  prince,  has  any  wish  to  execute  so  cowardly  a  design 
against  those  who  have  never  offended  him  and  have  never 
been  other  than  his  faithful  servants."  We  may  smile  at  the 
simplicity  or  the  effrontery  with  which  the  duke  uttered  such 
professions  of  consideration  for  a  people  whom  he  would  not 
permit  to  enjoy  the  blessings  of  peace  guaranteed  to  them  by 
repeated  edicts  of  pacification,  and  such  assurances  of  loyalty 
to  a  sovereign  whose  ruin  he  had  nearly  compassed,  expect- 
ing his  words  to  be  accepted  as  unalloyed  truth.  But  we 
can  scarcely  be  surprised  that  he  was  slow  to  believe  that  the 
king  meditated  so  deadly  a  thrust  at  the  "Holy  League"  in 
the  person  of  its  foremost  leader.  Had  not  his  majesty  sum- 
moned some  of  the  principal  deputies  to  him,  on  the  ninth 
The  king  day  of  December,  the  morrow  of  the  great  feast  of 
trperslverre  tne  Conception  of  our  Lady,  and  had  he  not,  after 
in  the  union,  confessing  himself,  and  with  his  eyes  fixed  upon  the 
consecrated  wafer,  uttered  such  words  as  these,  the  Duke  and 
the  Cardinal  of  Guise  being  present:  "I  have  sent  for  yon 
all  to  come  here  in  order  to  tell  you  and  to  swear  on  the  Body 
of  my  God,  which  I  am  about  to  receive  in  your  presence,  that 
I  again  take  an  oath  to  support  the  holy  Union,  and  again 
unite  myself  with  you  all  in  such  wise  that  never  will  I  depart 
therefrom  until  I  shall  have  wholly  extirpated  heresy  and  the 
heretics  from  my  kingdom.  I  call  upon  you  all  to  help  me  in 
this  matter  as  you  have  promised  to  do ;  and,  on  my  side.  I 

1  MS.  Relation  of  Jehan  Patte,  a  burgess  of  Amiens,  respecting  the  tat 

nation  of  the  Duke  and  Cardinal  of  Guise,  printed  for  the  first  time  in  the  Bul- 
letin de  la  Societe  de  PHistoire  de  France  (Documents  historiques  originaux  . 
i.  79.  See,  also,  the  very  similar  views,  expressed  a  month  or  two  earlier,  as 
reported  by  Cavriana,  N<;gociations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  830. 


1588.  ASSASSINATION   OF   THE  GUISES.  99 

protest  on  this  holy  sacrament  to  fulfil  my  engagements  ;  or, 
may  this  reception  be  to  my  damage,  ruin,  and  entire  confu- 
sion !  Were  I  to  have  a  hundred  daggers  at  my  throat,  never 
would  I  desist  from  this  holy  enterprise."  ] 

The  story  of  the  king's  preparations  for  the  stealthy  blow  he 
was  about  to  strike  has  been  told  often  and  well.  It  will  be 
sufficient  for  my  present  purpose  to  touch  lightly  upon  the  in- 
cidents of  the  bloody  deed  which  has  given  to  the  castle  of 
Blois  those  gloomy  associations  that  will  outlast  even  the  mas- 
sive walls  of  the  building  itself. 

It  was  very  early  on  Friday,  the  twenty-third  of  December, 

that  a  meeting  of  the  royal  council  was  called.     The  king,  so 

he  said,  wished  to  expedite  business,  that  he  might 

The  assassi-  '  .       L  ° 

nation  of  the   go  and  spend   Christmas,   but  two  days  distant,  at 

Duke  of  Guise.  :?„.  ._  ,        „..  ,  „,.  _     1  . 

JNotre  JJame  de  (Jlery.  lhe  morning  of.  the  short- 
est day  in  the  year  was  rendered  more  gloomy  by  a  cold,  win- 
try storm.  The  rain  fell  steadily.  Never  had  such  dreary 
weather  been  known.2  Guise  had  been  summoned  from  his 
room  in  the  western  wing  of  the  castle,  by  message  upon  mes- 
sage from  the  king.  After  a  hurried  toilet  and  with  customary 
prayers  unsaid,  he  presented  himself  at  the  stairs  leading  up 
from   the  courtyard  to  the  royal   apartment.3     An   unwonted 

'Relation  of  Jehan  Patte,  ubi  supra,  i.  78.  According  to  Lestoile,  i.  266, 
it  was  on  Sunday,  the  4th  of  December,  that  the  king  swore  perfect  reconcili- 
ation and  friendship  with  Guise. 

2  Pericaud,  Guise's  secretary,  states  in  his  deposition  that  but  few  of  the 
duke's  retainers  were  at  his  rooms  that  morning,  k'  a  cause  du  mauvais  temps 
qu'il  faisoit,  comme  a  la  verits  c'estoit  le  plus  obscur,  tenebreux  et  pluvieux 
qui  fut  jamais."  See  "  Information  faicte  par  P.  Michon  et  J.  Courtin,  con- 
seillers  en  la  cour  de  Parlement,  pour  raison  des  massacres  commis  a  Blois 
es  personnes  des  due  et  cardinal  de  Guise  "  (an  inquest  made  at  the  request  of 
the  Duchess  of  Guise),  Cimber  et  Danjou,  Archives  curieuses,  xii.  194. 

3  Very  obedient  to  the  king's  commands,  "comme  ung  pauvre  Isacq."  On 
leaving  his  room  he  had  exclaimed  :  "  Je  n'ay  jamais  accoustumez  de  sortir 
de  ma  chambre  sans  premierement  avoir  prye  Dieu,  dont  j'ay  ung  extraime 
regret  d'estre  ainsy  presse."  Relation  of  Jehan  Patte,  ubi  supra,  i.  79.  The 
northern  part  of  the  castle  of  Blois,  where  the  king  lodged,  was  built  by  his 
grandfather,  Francis  I.  The  eastern  portion,  including  the  portal,  over  which 
stands,  or  lately  stood,  an  equestrian  statue  of  Louis  XII.,  was  erected  by 
this  monarch,  the  father  of  Renee  of  France,  Guise's  grandmother.  See  the 
plan  in  Vitet,  Les  Etats  de  Blois  (Paris,  1827).     The  coincidence  is  of  interest. 


100      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX 

sight  met  his  eyes  ;  the  royal  guard  of  archers  lined  the  ascent ; 
for  the  king  had  been  resolved  that  his  prey  should  not  this 
time  escape  him.  But  if  the  duke's  suspicions  were  aroused  by 
the  signs  that  pointed  to  some  plot  against  his  person,  they 
were  quickly  allayed  by  the  assurance  of  the  officer  in  command, 
that  the  guards  had  come  to  beg  his  majesty  to  pay  them  their 
wages,  long  overdue,  and  to  tell  him  that  otherwise  they  would 
be  compelled  to  sell  even  their  horses,  to  procure  themselves 
the  necessaries  of  life.  So,  after  promising  to  support  the 
archers'  reasonable  request  with  all  his  influence,  Guise  entered 
the  council-chamber,  where  his  brother  the  cardinal,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Lyons,  and  a  few  others  of  the  king's  advisers  were 
already  assembled.  In  the  light  of  a  great  catastrophe,  even 
the  most  insignificant  of  circumstances — circumstances  that  at 
other  times  would  have  been  deemed  unworthy  of  a  second 
thought — assume  a  fantastic  importance,  and  are  told  by  the 
curious  in  all  their  details,  as  if  having  an  essential  bearing 
upon  subsequent  events.  Long  years  after  the  time  of  the 
scenes  here  described,  the  partisans  and  the  enemies  of  Guise 
alike,  never  tired  of  relating  how  the  valiant  duke  was  over- 
taken, as  he  stood  near  the  fire,  by  a  sudden  feeling  of  faint- 
ness,  and  must  needs  send  for  some  preserved  fruit  to  stay  his 
stomach  ;  or,  how  the  eye  so  nearly  lost  by  that  honorable 
wound  which  had  procured  him  the  surname  of  "  Le  Balafiv," 
began  to  weep,  and  he  was  constrained  to  despatch  a  servant, 
whom  the  guards,  according  to  the  strict  orders  they  had  re- 
ceived, refused  to  let  pass,  for  the  handkerchief  which  in  his 
haste  he  had  forgotten  to  bring  with  him.  Such  incidents, 
however,  whether  simply  fortuitous  or  bearing  some  resem- 
blance to  the  premonitions  of  danger  affecting  a  bold  nature 
until  now  but  little  influenced  by  warnings  received  from  others, 
are  of  little  moment.  A  false  security  still  blinded  Guise  to 
the  deadly  net  into  whose  meshes  he  had  thrust  himself.  Had 
he  not  informed  the  Spanish  ambassador  with  the  utmost  pos- 
itiveness  that  he  knew  the  cowardly  king  to  the  very  core  i 
He  must,  therefore,  persuade  himself,  as  he  had  more  than  once 
maintained  to  others  whose  apprehensions  he  wished  to  allay, 
that  the  king  would  not  dare  to  attack  him.     "  II   n'oserait  !  " 


1588.  ASSASSINATION   OF  THE   GUISES.  101 

were  the  confident  words  he  scribbled  down  as  an  answer  to 
one  of  the  last  of  the  warnings  mysteriously  conveyed  to  him. 

Re  vol,  one  of  the  secretaries  of  state,  now  appeared  at  the 
door  of  the  council  chamber,  and  announced  to  Guise  that  his 
majesty  desired  his  presence.  Instantly  the  duke  arose,  and, 
after  courteously  bidding  his  associates  good-by,  prepared  to 
follow  the  messenger.  lie  had  thrown  his  cloak  about  his  left 
arm,  and  held  gloves  and  comfit-box  in  his  hand.  At  his  knock 
the  door  of  the  royal  bedchamber,  through  which  he  must  pass, 
wras  opened,  and  his  eyes  rested,  not  upon  the  monarch,  but 
upon  six  or  eight  of  Henry  of  Yalois's  famous  band  of  the 
"  Fortv-five  "  gentlemen.  At  the  farther  end  of  the  room  a 
heavy  velvet  curtain  fell  over  the  doorway  leading  to  the  king's 
new  cabinet.  The  game  had  indeed  fallen  into  the  toils ;  for, 
beyond  that  tapestry,  in  the  "  old "  cabinet,  overlooking  the 
castle  yard,  lurked  another  dozen  of  the  "  Forty-five,"  ready  to 
spring  from  their  lair  upon  the  unfortunate  nobleman,  should 
he  by  any  chance  penetrate  so  far.  With  them,  or  hard  by,  the 
king  himself,  anxiously  awaiting  the  success  of  his  cowardly 
plot ;  in  his  oratory,  just  across  a  narrow  entry,  Henry's  chap- 
lain, engaged  in  prayers  which  he  had  been  charged  to  offer 
to  heaven  for  the  success  of  the  king's  project.  The  gentlemen 
posted  in  the  bedchamber  returned  the  duke's  salute  with  a 
semblance  of  courtesy.  There  was  something,  however,  in  the 
expression  of  their  faces,  or  in  their  bearing,  as  they  moved 
to  accompany  him,  that  aroused  his  curiosity  or  his  alarm ;  for, 
having  reached  the  portiere,  and  while  in  the  act  of  raising  it, 
he  turned  his  head  to  take  a  second  look  at  them.  The  in- 
stinctive act  was  understood  as  a  preparation  for  retreat  or  for 
self-defence.  In  a  moment  the  assassins  were  upon  him.  Mont- 
ferry,  who  was  nearest,  close  to  the  fireplace,  wTas  the  first  to 
seize  him,  and  plunged  a  poniard  in  his  breast,  crying :  "  Ha  ! 
traitor,  thou  shalt  die !  "  Effranats  entangled  his  legs ;  Saint 
Malines  dealt  him  a  cruel  thrust  close  to  the  throat ;  Lognac 
struck  him  with  his  sword  in  the  loins.  Thus,  overwhelmed  by 
numbers  and  taken  at  unawares,  impeded  by  his  cloak,  with  the 
blood  gushing  from  many  a  wound,  the  Duke  of  Guise  exerted 
his  prodigious  strength  to  no  purpose,  but  yet  had  vigor  and 


102      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cu.  IX 

resolution  enough  to  drag  himself  and  the  assailants  who  had 
fastened  upon  him  the  full  length  of  the  room,  where  he  fell  at 
the  very  foot  of  the  king's  bed.  It  was  but  a  moment  before 
all  was  over.  The  few  words  that  escaped  him  were  remembered 
by  the  assassins:  "Ha!  my  friends,''  several  times  repeated. 
"  Mercy  !  "     "  My  God,  have  pity  on  me  !  " 

There  was  no  need  of  the  assistance  of  the  king's  reserved 
force.  Henry  of  Yalois  himself,  mustering  up  courage,  now 
that  his  enemy  was  breathing  his  last,  pushed  aside  the  curtain 
and  came  upon  the  scene.  His  satisfaction  was  unconcealed. 
He  ordered  the  body  of  Guise  to  be  searched  for  further  evi- 
dence of  his  treasonable  designs.  Besides  a  few  gold  crown.-,  a 
bit  of  paper  was  brought  to  light  with  the  words :  "  To  carry 
on  the  war  in  France,  seven  hundred  thousand  livres  are  neces- 
sary every  month."  In  his  exultation  over  the  dead,  Henry  u 
even  said  to  have  kicked  the  Duke  of  Guise  in  the  face.  So 
the  Duke  of  Guise  himself  kicked  the  corpse  of  Admiral  Gas- 
pard  de  Coligny,  fifteen  years  before,  in  the  court-yard  of  a 
house  in  the  little  Rue  de  Bethisy. 

It  was  not  the  Huguenots  alone  that  saw  marks  of  retribu- 
tive justice  in  the  similarity  between  the  death  of  the  Duke  of 
Guise  and  that  of  Admiral  Coligny.  "  This  tragedy,"  wrote 
the  Florentine  Cavriana,  "  is  very  similar  to  that  of  the  death 
of  the  admiral  on  Saint  Bartholomew's  Day  ;  since  he  wl. 
eagerly  sought  the  admiral's  death,  he  who  wished  to  see  his 
enemy  dead  and  thrown  out  the  window,  he  who  arranged 
that  the  body  should  remain  for  some  days  unburied,  after  hav- 
ing been  dragged  through  the  public  streets,  he  who  insulted 
it,  and  who  contrived  his  enemy's  death  by  lying  in  wait — this 
same  man  fell  into  the  snare,  in  the  self-same  manner.  It 
looks  like  a  divine  judgment  against  which  there  is  neither 
wisdom  nor  counsel."  ' 

In  the  council  chamber  the  Cardinal  of  Guise  heard  the  noise 
of  the  struggle  going  on  in  the  adjoining  room.  "  11a  !  "  he 
exclaims,    as   he   springs  to   his   feet,    "  they   are   killing    iny 


1  Cavriana  to  Serguidi,  December  31,  1588,  Negotiations  avee  la  Toscane, 
iv.  849. 


loSS.  ASSASSINATION   OF   THE   GUISES.  103 

brother."  But  Marshal  d'Aumont,  who  is  in  the  secret,  is  at 
the  cardinal's  side  in  an  instant  with  drawn  sword.  "  Stir  not, 
sir,"  he  cries,  with  an  oath,  "  the  king  has  to  do  with  you."  At 
this  Guise's  fellow-conspirators,  at  the  council  board  resign  them- 
selves to  their  fate;  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  in  abject  fear, 
ejaculating,  "  Our  lives  are  in  the  hands  of  God  and  of  the 
king." 

The  king's  first  intention  had  been  merely  to  imprison  the 
brother  of  his  arch-enemy.     Cardinal  Guise's  own  words  and 

actions,  when  hurried  away  to  the  lower  room  of 
cardinal        the   castle,  for  safe  keeping   made  him  change  his 

purpose.  Even  there  the  defiant  spirit  of  the  Lor- 
raine prince  could  not  consult  prudence.  "  I  hope  that  I  may 
not  die,"  he  was  reported  to  Henry  as  saying,  "  before  I  shall 
hold  the  head  of  that  tyrant  between  my  knees,  and  make  him 
a  crown  with  the  point  of  a  dagger."  True  or  false,  the  words 
cost  the  prelate  his  life.  The  next  day,  the  eve  of  the  day 
commemorating  Christ's  birth,  the  cardinal  was  drawn  from  his 
cell,  only  to  be  speedily  despatched.  The  bodies  of  the  two 
brothers  were  then  placed  in  the  care  of  the  grand  provost  of 
France,  M.  de  Richelieu,  father  of  the  famous  cardinal  of  that 
name.  Whether  they  were  burned  by  fire  in  a  room  of  the 
castle,  adjacent  to  the  gate,  as  some  said,  or  destroyed  by  quick- 
lime, as  others  reported,  certain  it  is  that  no  vestige  of  the 
body  of  either  brother  w^as  spared  to  become  an  object  of  the 
idolatrous  worship  of  the  Parisian  populace.  The  same  Loire 
that  had  carried  past  Blois  the  bodies  of  the  unfortunate  vic- 
tims of  the  father's  vengeance,  after  the  failure  of  the  Tu- 
mult of  Amboise,  now  sluggishly  bore  along  to  the  ocean  the 
indistinguishable  ashes  of  the  sons.1 

How  will  the  murder  of  the  Duke  of  Guise  affect  the  policy 
of  the  King  of  France  in  respect  to  his  long-persecuted  subjects 
the  Huguenots,  is  the  inquiry  which  most  nearly  concerns  us  at 

1  Cavriana,  however,  gives  a  different  account.  "  E  pianto  in  segreto  sola- 
mente,  ma  il  corpo  suo  posto  in  un  lenzuolo  e  seppellitto  in  luogo  sacro  senza 
alcun  onore  di  mortorio,  e  in  un  villaggio  separato  dal  mondo,  insieme  col  car- 
dinale,  suo  fratello  ;  e  cio  si  sa  da  pochissimi. "  Negociations  avec  la  Toscane, 
iv.  847. 


104      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    On.  IX. 

this  juncture.    Will  the  monarch  who  has  just  been  despatching 

a  troublesome  nobleman,  through  whose  machinations  the  "  Holy 

Catholic  League"  has  forced  upon  him  a  war  of  ex- 
Henry's  pol-  .        ,  . 
icy  toward  the  termination  to  be  waged  against  the  1  rotestants,  as- 

Huguenots.  •        -T  i  i 

sume  a  conciliatory  attitude  now  that  the  pressure 
seems  likely  to  be  removed  ?  Happily  we  are  not  left  to  con- 
jecture the  thoughts  which  were  passing  through  the  mind  of 
Henry  of  Yalois. 

There  was  a  woman  in  the  same  castle  of  Blois  without 
whose  participation  little  of  importance  had  been  done  in 
France  for  the  past  thirty  years,  or  thereabouts.  Catharine 
de'  Medici's  apartments  were  on  the  story  below  those  of  the 
king,  but  corresponding,  room  for  room,  with  his.  While  the 
Duke  of  Guise  was  falling  under  the  daggers  of  assassins,  the 
queen  mother  lay  in  the  room  precisely  beneath,  dangerously 
ill,  and  completely  ignorant  of  her  son's  designs.  Now,  how- 
ever, that  the  deed  was  done,  Henry  felt  himself  impelled  by 
an  uncontrollable  impulse  to  communicate  the  tidings  of  his 
triumph  to  a  mother  who  had  reigned  so  many  years  under  the 
name  of  her  weak  sons. 

In  the  corner  of  the  king's  bedroom,  not  over  two  or  three 
yards  from  where  yet  lay  the  inanimate  form  of  the  duke,  a 
narrow,  spiral  staircase,  hidden  in  the  wall,  led  to  the  bedroom 
of  Catharine  de'  Medici.  Down  this  the  king  made  his  way. 
It  lacked  yet  some  time  of  sunrise.  Of  what  happened,  and 
particularly  of  what  Henry  said  on  this  occasion,  we  are  in- 
formed in  a  letter  of  Dr.  Filippo  Cavriana.  Catharine's  own 
physician  (who  was  also  the  secret  agent  of  the  Grand  Dnke  of 
Florence),  written  within  twenty-four  hours  of  the  events  de- 
scribed, and  from  the  castle  of  Blois  itself. 

" Yesterday,"  says  Cavriana,  "which  was  the  day  before 
Christmas  eve,  and  the  twenty-third  of  December,  about  eight 
mu  ,.    ,        o'clock  in  the  morning:  (that  is,  according  to  the  Ital- 

The  king's  o  ^  ' 

account giv-    ian  fashion  of  counting,  about  half-past  one  o'clock'. 

en  to  Catha-  ~ '  *■ 

rinede'Med-   the  Duke  of  Guise  was  stabbed  to  death,  in  the  room 

1C1. 

of  the  king,  by  those  gentlemen  that  are  perpetually 
on  guard  about  him  (who  from  their  number  are  called  the 
Forty-five),  assigned  to  him,  three  years  ago,  by  Epernon,  Joy- 


1588.  ASSASSINATION   OF  THE  GUISES.  105 

euse,  and  La  Valette,  when  they  were  governing  the  world  at 
their  will.  The  manner  of  the  death  I  shall  relate  to  you  as 
I  heard  it  recounted  by  the  king  himself  to  the  queen,  his 
mother,  I  being  present  and  very  close  to  him  when  he  narrated 
the  incident. 

"  So  soon  as  the  king  saw  the  competitor  and  rival  of  his 
command  to  be  dead,  he  descended  to  the  room  of  the  queen 
mother,  and  asked  me  particularly  how  she  was.  I  replied, 
that  she  was  doing  well,  and  that  she  had  taken  a  little  medi- 
cine. He  then  approached  her  and  said,  with  a  countenance 
the  most  steady  and  assured  in  the  world : 

"  £  Good-morning,  madam.  I  beg  you  to  excuse  me.  Mon- 
sieur de  Guise  is  dead,  and  will  be  talked  of  no  more.  I  have 
had  him  killed,  having  anticipated  him  in  what  he  designed  to 
do  to  me.  I  could  no  longer  tolerate  his  insolence,  despite  my 
resolution  to  endure  it,  that  I  might  not  imbrue  my  hands  in 
his  blood,  and  despite  my  forgetfulness  of  the  insult  received 
on  the  thirteenth  of  May  (which  was  a  Friday,  the  day  on  which 
he  was  compelled  to  flee  from  Paris).  I  had  also  cast  into 
oblivion  his  frequent  attempts  to  offend  me  in  life,  honor, 
and  kingdom.  Nevertheless,  discovering,  and  proving  it  every 
hour,  that  he  was  anew  sapping  and  mining ' — these  were  his 
very  words — '  my  authority,  life,  and  state,  I  resolved  upon  this 
enterprise,  which  long  perplexed  my  mind,  as  I  disputed  within 
myself  whether  I  ought  to  execute  it  or  not.  However,  seeing 
that  my  patience  was  resulting  in  damage  and  shame  to  myself, 
and  that  every  day  I  was  irritated  and  offended  by  new  plots 
of  his,  at  last  God  inspired  and  aided  me,  to  whom  I  am  now 
going  to  render  thanks  in  church  at  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass. 
If  any  man  henceforth  speaks  of  belonging  to  the  League,  I  will 
do  to  him  as  much  as  I  have  done  to  Monsieur  de  Guise.  I 
mean  to  remove  the  burdens  from  my  people  ;  I  mean  to  hold 
the  states  ;  but  I  mean  also  that  they  shall  speak  according  to 
their  station,  and  not  after  the  fashion  of  kings,  as  they  have 
done  until  now.  To  the  family  and  property  of  the  deceased 
I  intend  no  injury  whatever.  I  will  favor,  embrace,  and  aid 
his  relatives,  as  the  Dukes  of  Lorraine,  Nemours,  and  Elbenf, 
and  Madame   de  Nemours,  whom  I  know   to  be  faithful  and 


106       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

affectionate  toward  me.  But  I  mean  to  be  the  king  and  no 
longer  a  captive  and  slave,  as  I  have  been  since  the  thirteenth 
of  May  until  this  hour.  Now  I  begin  afresh  to  be  the  king 
and  the  master.  I  have  also  placed  guards  over  the  Prince  of 
Joinville,  over  Nemours,  Elbeuf,  and  Madame  de  Nemours,  not 
to  do  them  harm,  but  because  I  wish  to  secure  myself.  I  have 
done  the  same  to  the  Cardinal  of  Guise  and  the  Archbishop  of 
Lyons,  and,  for  the  same  reason,  to  my  uncle,  the  Cardinal  of 
Bourbon,  who  will  receive  no  harm  at  my  hands.  I  shall,  how- 
TheHugue-  ever>  place  him  in  a  position  where  he  will  be  well 
bepeSecuted  °^>  an(^  wnere  I  cannot  be  harmed  by  him.  I  shall 
prosecute  with  more  boldness  and  ardor  the  war 
against  the  Huguenots,  wrhom  I  intend  by  every  means  to  ex- 
terminate from  my  kingdom.' ' 

"Having  said  this  with  the  same  steadiness  with  which 
he  came  and  began,  he  retired  in  nowise  disturbed  in  coun- 
tenance or  in  thought,  a  thing  which  to  me,  who  was  present, 
appeared  marvellous.  Afterward  I  began  to  consider  with  my- 
self that  such  is  the  sweetness  of  revenge  that  it  gives  new 
vigor  and  life  to  the  mind,  and  clears  up  the  countenance.  This 
example  will  serve  to  deter  others  from  making  attempts  upon 
their  prince;  for,  as  he  then  said  very  wisely,  not  a  case  has 
been  known  where  a  person  has  rebelled  against  his  master  and 
natural  lord  that  he  has  not  been  punished  sooner  or  later." 

What  Catharine  de'  Medici,  startled  by  the  sudden  intelli- 
gence, answered  her  son,  Cavriana  has  not  recorded  ;  but  we 
know  from  other  sources  that  she  confined  herself  to  the  ex- 
pression of  the  hope  that  Henry  had  prepared  himself  against 
future  contingencies.  When  he  declared  that  he  had  dom 
she  said  she  prayed  that  God  would  grant  that  the  issue  might 
prove  advantageous.3 


1  "  Seguiro  piu  ardita  e  ardentamente  la  guerra  contro  gli  ugonotti.  i  quail 
vuo'  ad  ogni  modo  estirpare  dal  mio  regno/' 

'-'  Cavriana  to  Serguidi,  Blois,  December  24,  15SS,  Negociations  avec  La 
cane,  iv.  842,  843. 

3  Jehan  Patte  will  have  it  that  the  queen  mother  did  more  :  "  laquelle  lay 
dist  plusieurs  injures,  et  s'il  avoit  bien  donne  hordes  (ordre)  a  St.-?  affaires, 
pour  ce  que  M.  de  Guise  avoit  beaucoup  daniis."     This  is  highly  improbable. 


1588.  ASSASSINATION   OF  THE  GUISES.  107 

That  very  morning,  after  despatching  Richelieu  to  announce 
to  the  tiers-etat,  assembled  in  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  that  he  de- 
sired them  to  continue  their  deliberations,  despite  a  conspiracy 
which  he  said  that  he  had  discovered  to  stab  him  in  his  room, 
his  majesty  proceeded  to  hear  mass,  as  much  exhilarated  over 
his  exploit — so  the  spectators  said — as  if  he  had  conquered  the 
whole  world.1 

Thus  perished,  in  the  flower  of  his  age,  a  prince  of  line  pres- 
ence and  of  no  mean  abilities,  before  whose  eyes  the  prospect 
of  a  brilliant  future  seemed  to  be  spread.2  The  IIu- 
temfthe        guenots,  who  had  experienced  the  effects  of  his  mili- 

Duke  of  Guise,  i       i   -n  t        i   .      i     i   • 

tary  prowess  and  skill,  never  doubted  ins  capacity, 
however  much  they  might  deplore  the  perversion  of  high  natu- 
ral endowments  to  the  support  of  an  evil  cause.  Shrewd  in 
counsel,  prompt  and  vigorous  in  execution,  he  united  great  bold- 
ness in  planning  a  campaign  to  signal  personal  courage,  verging 
upon  recklessness.  His  claim  to  have  been  the  prime  author 
of  the  repulse  of  the  Army  of  the  Reiters  might  be  successfully 
disputed  ;  but  no  one  could  challenge  his  bravery  or  the  brill- 
iancy of  his  charges  at  Vimory  and  at  Auheau.  His  was  just 
the  character  to  conciliate  favor  and  to  fit  him  to  be  the  idol  of 


1  For  the  incidents  of  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Guise  and  his  brother,  see 
De  Thou,  vii.  338-347  ;  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iii.  155-162  ;  Recueil  des 
choses  mamorables,  676;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  151,152;  Etienne  Pasquier's 
letter  of  December  27,  1588  (CEuvres,  Edit.  Feugere),  ii.  316-321  ;  Davila, 
370,  371  ;  Lestoile,  i.  267,  268  ;  Jehan  de  la  Fosse,  221 ;  Mendoza  to  Philip 
II.,  Saint  Die,  December  27,  1588,  De  Croze,  ii.  381-4;  Cavriana,  ubi  supra, 
iv.  842-845 ;  Relation  de  Jehan  Patte,  in  the  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de  l'His- 
toire  de  France,  i. ,  doc.  hist  ,  77-86  ;  Le  martyre  des  deux  freres,  a  virulent 
pamphlet  printed  in  1589,  reprinted  in  Cimber  et  Danjou,  Archives  curieuses, 
xii.  57-107 ;  Relation  de  la  mort  de  Messieurs  les  Due  et  Cardinal  de  Guise 
(written  probably  by  Miron),  ibid.,  xii.  109-138  ;  Information  faicte  par  P. 
Michon  et  J.  Courtin,  conseillers  en  la  cour  de  Parlement,  etc.,  containing  the 
depositions  of  Pericaud,  of  Olphan  de  Gast,  one  of  the  king's  guards,  of 
Etienne  Dourgain,  the  king's  chaplain,  sent  for  by  Henry  III.  to  pray  for  his 
success,  of  Michel  Marteau,  prcvCt  des  marchands,  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Lyons,  etc.,  ibid.,  xii.  189-221. 

2  According  to  Cavriana,  Guise  had  all  the  elements  of  greatness  :  "  bellezza, 
grandezza.  forza,  dolcezza,  ardire,  prudenza,  pazienza,  dissimulazione,  segrezza  ; 
ci  mancava  la  fede,  per  la  quale  sarebbe  poco  meno  che  re."  Negociations 
avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  847. 


108      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

the  Roman  Catholic  multitude  in  Paris  and,  indeed,  throughout 
all  France.  In  the  race  for  popular  applause  he  had,  from  the 
start,  this  signal  advantage  over  every  competitor,  that  he  was 
the  son  and  successor  of  a  father  whom  the  Church  had  exalted 
to  the  high  dignity  of  a  martyr  for  the  faith.  His  private 
morals  were  not,  indeed,  above  the  low  standard  of  the  courtiers 
of  his  day.  Of  conjugal  fidelity  he  knew  nothing ;  and  it  was 
characteristic  that  the  last  night  of  his  life  had  been  spent  in 
the  society  of  Madame  de  Sauve,1  one  of  those  ladies  of  i 
conscience  and  more  than  doubtful  reputation  for  whose  smiles 
not  only  Henry  of  Yalois  and  the  late  Duke  of  Anjou,  but 
Henry  of  Navarre  himself  had  been  successful  suitors.  None 
the  less  was  the  claim  to  Catholic  orthodoxy  an  inalienable 
possession,  inherited  along  with  many  family  traits.  More 
polished  in  address  than  his  father,  he  seemed  to  have  derived 
from  his  uncle,  the  great  cardinal,  his  full  portion  of  the  pre- 
late's untruthfulness,  without  one  particle  of  the  prelate's  noto- 
rious cowardice.  Men  who  knew  the  two  brothers  intimately. 
contrasted  Henry  of  Guise  and  Charles  of  Mayenne  to  the  dis- 
advantage of  the  former.  Henry  was  rash,  Charles  was  pru- 
dent. Henry's  word  could  not  be  depended  upon:  Charles 
was  straightforward  and  veracious.  Henry  spent  lavishly,  in- 
volving his  private  finances  in  hopeless  indebted  ne>s.  and  giving 
himself  little  concern  so  long  as  he  could  borrow  enough  to 
meet  the  most  pressing  claims;  Charles  managed  his  affairs 
with  rigid  economy.  It  remained  to  be  seen  whether  the  cooler 
head  of  the  younger  brother  would  prove  more  successful  than 
the  impulsive  nature  of  the  elder,  in  rearing  the  perilous  edifice 
of  the  League. 

Of  one  thing  there  could  be  no  doubt :  the  inordinate  am- 
bition of  Henry  of  Guise  sealed  his  fate.     Not  content  with 


1  "  Une  des  plus  belles  dames  de  la  cour."'  Miron's  relation,  ubi  supra,  xii. 
199.  The  portrait  of  Madame  de  Sauve  (Catharine  de  Beaunet  is  given  in 
Niel,  Personnages  franqois  du  XVP,  siecle,  tome  ii.,  from  a  contemporary 
crayon  sketch.  It  affords  little  evidence  of  the  strange  fascination  which  this 
famous  beauty  is  said  to  have  possessed.  After  the  death  of  M.  de  Sauve.  his 
widow  had  married  the  Marquis  de  Xoirmoutier.  October  18.  1584.  She  con- 
tinued, however,  to  be  known  by  the  name  of  her  first  husband. 


1588.  ASSASSINATION   OF  THE  GUISES.  109 

the  office  of  lieutenant-general,  he  aspired  to  absolute  military 

command.     Should  the  king  confer  upon  the  duke  the  rank  of 

high  constable  of  France,  in  addition  to  the  powers 

His  ambition.      it  r  1   •  ,     ,  'it  i  i 

already  wrung  rrom  his  majesty  s  unwilling  hands, 
the  first  step  to  the  throne  would  be  conceded  to  his  enemy. 
Therefore  it  was  that  the  assassination  of  Guise  was  ordered  at 
the  very  moment  when  the  draft  of  the  patent  for  his  promo- 
tion was  under  the  hands  of  the  duke's  secretary.1  The  Duke 
of  Guise  had  not  displayed  even  ordinary  caution.  Only  the 
day  before  his  assassination,  while  walking  with  the  king,  after 
mass,  in  the  garden  of  the  castle,  he  indulged  in  loud  com- 
plaints of  his  majesty's  continued  resentment,  and  declared  his 
purpose  to  resign  his  office  of  lieutenant-general  and  retire  to 
the  province  of  which  he  was  governor.  Henry  of  Yalois  un- 
derstood the  meaning  of  the  threat :  Guise  would  give  up  the 
inferior  dignity  only  that  he  might  receive  the  higher  office  at 
the  hands  of  the  states  general,  according  to  their  promise,  and 
owe  no  obligation  for  it  to  the  monarch.2  In  fact,  what  with 
the  Duke  of  Guise's  prospective  military  authority  and  the 
remodelled  council  which  the  states  general  urged  the  king  to 

1  "  A  l'heure  que  M.  de  Guise  y  minute  ses  lettres  de  connestable,  et  la  de- 
gradation du  roy  de  Navarre,  contre  le  jugement  dung  chacung,  le  roy  le  faict 
tuer  en  sa  chambre."  Memoires  de  Madame  Duplessis  Mornay,  165.  Jean 
Pericaud,  Guise's  secretary,  in  his  deposition,  stated  that  the  king  having  ar- 
rested him,  after  the  duke's  death,  examined  him  narrowly  as  to  his  master's 
intentions,  threatening  "to  make  him  wed  a  rope  within  a  quarter  of  an 
hour,"  in  case  he  did  not  tell  the  truth.  One  question  was,  whether  Guise 
did  not  intend  to  carry  his  majesty  off  by  force  to  Paris.  A  second  was, 
whether  Guise  did  not  wish  to  be  made  constable,  to  seize  the  royal  power  and 
to  reduce  the  king  to  a  cipher  ("  un  O  en  chiffre  ").  Of  course,  the  secretary 
denied  everything  ;  but  Henry  declared  that  Madame  dAumale  had  warned 
him  of  Guise's  intention  to  take  him  forcibly  to  Paris,  more  than  a  week  be- 
fore. See  Pericaud  s  testimony  in  the  Information  faicte  par  P.  Michon  et 
J.  Courtin,  etc.,  printed  in  Cimber  et  Danjou,  Archives  curieuses,  xiii.  176. 

2  According  to  the  Relation,  ascribed  to  Henry  III.'s  physician,  Miron, 
the  king  when  ill,  a  few  days  later,  so  explained  his  conversation  with  Guise 
to  the  Duchess  of  Angouleme,  who  had  come  to  visit  him.  The  writer  was 
present.  "  '  II  me  vouloit  rendre  cette  charge  pour  ce  que  les  estats  lui  avoient 
promis  de  le  faire  connestable,  et  ne  m'en  vouloit  pas  avoir  l'obligation. ' 
Voila  les  propres  termes  du  Roy."  Cimber  et  Danjou,  Archives  curieuses,  xii. 
125-127. 


110      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  IX. 

institute,  with  powers  absolute  and  without  appeal,  his  maj- 
esty bade  fair  soon  to  find  himself,  so  far  as  all  influence 
in  the  state  was  concerned,  as  naked  as  he  had  come  into  the 
world.1 

The  assassination  of  the  Duke  of  Guise  and  of  the  Cardinal 

his  brother  was  followed,  within  a  few  days,  by  another  death, 

which,  at  an  earlier  date,  might  have  shaken  France 

Illness  and  '  .  '  ° 

death  oe         and  made  an  important  chancre  in  its  tortunes,  but 

Catharine  de'  ...  ^  ,  . 

Medici— Jan-   whicli,  at  this   luncture,  produced   not   the  rainte.-t 

nary  5,  1589.         .  '  J  If  . 

ripple  on  the  surface  or  the  waters.  Catharine  de 
Medici,  lying  grievously  ill  in  the  castle,  had  been  deeply 
affected  by  the  intelligence  of  the  duke's  murder,  but  she  ex- 
perienced a  still  greater  shock  when,  on  the  succeeding  N< 
Year's  Day,  by  her  son's  request,  she  visited  the  captive  Cardi- 
nal of  Bourbon.  The  weather  was  unpropitious.  The  cold 
was  intense  and  the  winds  were  high.  Her  physicians  warned 
her  in  vain  of  the  risk  she  was  running.  But  the  exposure  to 
which  she  was  subjected,  while  carried  from  her  bedchamber 
to  the  room  wherein  the  prelate  was  confined,  had  less  effect 
upon  her  enfeebled  constitution  than  the  harsh  words  with 
which  he  greeted  her:  "Madam,  if  you  had  not  deceived  as 
and  brought  us  hither  by  fine  words  and  under  no  security, 
the  two  brothers  wrould  not  be  dead,  and  I  should  be  a  free 
man."  a  As  it  was,  the  humiliated  queen  mother  returned  to 
her  bedchamber  in  deep  dejection,  and  only  to  succumb  speed 
ily  to  the  disease  which  had  already  fastened  upon  her.  She 
died  on  the  fifth  of  January,  15S9.3  Had  she  lived  but  three 
months  and  a  few  days  more,  she  would  have  completed  her 


1  "II  quale  protesto  vuole  inferire  <U  lassarlo  infantum  nudum.11  So  writes 
Orazio  Rucellai,  the  great  Florentine  banker,  to  the  Grand  Duke's  first  secre- 
tary, Blois,  December  19,  1588.  Negociations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  ^77.  B78L 
See,  also,  Picot,  Histoire  des  Etats  Generaux,  iii.  136. 

-  Cavriana  to  Serguidi,  Blois,  January  5,  1589,  Negociations  avec  la  Toscane, 
iv.  853,  854.     See  Lestoile,  i.  278. 

3  "Ieri,  che  fu  il  v  di  gennaio  e  la  vigilia  dei  Re,  a  un'  ora  e  mezzo  dopo 
mezzodi,  la  Reina,  gran  madre  dei  re,  passd  a  miglior  vita  di  un  male  di  cos- 
tato,  il  quale  era  passato  a  un  altro,  detto  peripneumonia,  che  tanto  import* 
quanto  infiammazione  dei  polmoni."  Cavriana  to  Serguidi,  January  6,  1589, 
ibid.,  iv.  853. 


15S9.  DEATH   OF  CATHARINE  DE'   MEDICI.  Ill 

seventieth  year.1  It  was  over  fifty -five  years  since  she  came, 
as  the  bride  of  Henry  the  Second,  to  the  country  with  whose 
fortunes  her  connection  was  so  disastrous. 

It  would  be  a  superfluous  task  here  to  discuss  the  character 

of  the  remarkable  woman  who  now  passed  off  the   stage  of 

action,  her  demise,  to  use   the  homely  simile  of  a 

Tier  chjir£ictcr 

contemporary,  creating  no  greater  sensation  than 
would  the  death  of  a  paltry  goat.2  The  history  of  the  age  in 
which  she  lived  has  been  read  to  little  purpose  if  the  personal 
lineaments  of  the  widow  of  Henry  the  Second,  the  mother  of 
Francis  the  Second,  Charles  the  Ninth,  Henry  the  Third,  and 
Francis  of  Alencon  and  Anjou,  and  the  chief  author  of  the 
Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  be  not  clearly  impressed 
upon  the  mind — not  the  strongly  marked  and  not  ungracious 
features  of  her  face,  the  prominent  eyes,  the  long  nose  and  sen- 
sual lips  of  her  extant  portraits — but  the  more  clearly  defined 
and  unmistakable  outlines  of  her  mental  and  moral  constitu- 
tion. Pope  Clement  had  the  credit  with  the  world,  at  an  early 
date,  of  having  cleverly  tricked  Francis  the  First  into  consent- 
ing to  mate  his  second  son  with  an  obscure  Italian  girl  ;  and 
this  Italian  girl  had  apparently  deemed  it  her  duty  ever  since 
to  keep  up  the  traditions  of  the  Medici  family  by  endeavoring 
to  cheat  every  one  with  whom  she  came  into  contact.  How  it 
all  ended,  what  had  been  gained  by  falsehood  and  double  deal- 
ing and  wars  and  massacres,  was  now  seen  in  the  disgust  ex- 
pressed by  Cardinal  Bourbon,  and  still  more  manifestly  in  the 
contempt  with  which  her  death  was  summarily  dismissed  by 
those  who  deigned  to  record  the  event  at  all. 

The  Florentines  in  Paris  were,  perhaps,  the  most  sincere 
mourners,  although  we  can  hardly  read  their  words  without 


1  We  have  already  seen  that  Catharine  was  horn  at  Florence,  April  13,  1519. 
Her  mother,  Madeleine  de  la  Tour  d  Auvergne,  died  of  fever  on  the  25th  of 
the  same  month,  and  her  father,  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  on  the  4th  of  May  fol- 
lowing, scarcely  twenty-eight  years  old. 

5  "On  ne  parla  non  plus  d'elle  que  d'une  chevre  morte."  Recueil  des 
choses  mcmorables,  688.  See  De  Thou,  vii  366  ;  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iii. 
184,  185  ;  Lettres  d'  Etienne  Pasquier,  ii.  322,  etc.  ;  Lestoile,  i.  278  ;  Jehan 
de  la  Fosse,  223  ;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  153. 


112      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE    Ch.  IX. 

suspicion.  Was  not  the  banker  Rucellai  indulging  in  a  little 
quiet  irony  when  he  wrote  down  this  pious  prayer  in  her  be- 
half ?  "  May  it  please  His  Divine  Majesty  to  have  given  her  a 
place  in  heaven,  as  her  entire  life  and  the  departure  which  she 
has  so  holily  made  give  us  a  firm  hope  of  the  same  !  "  Her 
worthy  son-in-law,  the  King  of  Navarre,  did  not  pretend  to 
mourn.  On  Christmas  Day  he  wrote  to  Segur :  "  I  have  seen 
letters  brought  by  a  courier  in  which  the  writer  stated  that  he 
had  left  the  queen  mother,  who  was  dying.  I  will  speak  as  a 
Christian  :  God's  will  be  done  concerning  her !  "  2  A  week 
later,  having  heard  of  the  circumstance  that  Henry  the  Third, 
after  the  assassination  of  the  Lorraine  princes,  had  sent  to 
Lyons  to  arrest  their  brother,  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  the  gay 
monarch  wrote  to  another  correspondent,  in  playful  allusion  to 
Catharine's  illness  and  to  the  efforts  of  the  pope  and  the  League 
to  deprive  him  of  his  ancestral  throne  :  "  I  am  only  awaiting 
the  good  fortune  of  hearing  that  they  have  sent  and  strangled 
the  late  Queen  of  Navarre.  This,  with  the  death  of  her  mother, 
would  certainly  make  me  sing  the  song  of  Simeon  !  "  3  His  New- 
Year's  Day  wishes  were  every  way  as  humane  as  his  Christmas 
resignation  had  been  Christian. 

1  "Piaccia  a  Sua  Divina  Maesta  avergli  dato  luogo  in  cielo,  si  come  ne  danno 
ferma  speranza  tutta  la  vita  che  ella  ha  trapassata,  e  la  partita  die  cosi  santa- 
mente  ell'  ha  fatta!  "     Ncgociations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  877,  878. 

2  "  Je  parleray  en  chrestien  :  Dieu  en  fasse  sa  volonte."  Navarre  to  Segur, 
St.  Jean  d'Angely,  December  25,  1588,  Lettres  missives,  ii.  412. 

3  "Je  n' attends  que  l'heure  (l'heur)  de  oui'r  dire  que  Ton  aura  envoy,- 
estrangler  la  feu  reyne  de  Navarre.  Cela,  avec  la  inort  de  sa  mere,  me  fairoit 
bien  chanter  le  cantique  de  Simeon."  Navarre  to  the  Countess  of  Grani- 
mont,  January  1,  1589,  ibid.,  ii.  418. 


1589.  OPEN  REBELLION   OF  THE  LEAGUE.  llo 


CHAPTER  X. 

OPEN   REBELLION  OF  THE   LEAGUE,   AND  UNION  OF   THE  TWO 

KINGS. 

Various  were  the  emotions  awakened  in  the  breasts  of  the 
Huguenots  by  the  intelligence  that  reached  them  from  Blois. 
TheHugue-  The  very  essence  of  the  unjust  persecution  of  which 
more  freei^on  they  had  so  long  been  the  victims  seemed  to  have 
Henryao?  °f  Deen  embodied  in  the  elder  of  the  two  brothers  who 
Guise,  jia(j  jugt  met  an  unexpected  death  at  the  hands  of  an 

offended  king.  Not  more  truly  had  it  been  said  of  Francis  of 
Guise,  a  quarter  of  a  century  before,  that  he  was  the  chief 
enemy  of  the  Protestant  churches  of  the  kingdom,  than  the 
same  charge  could  now  be  brought  against  the  son  who  had 
succeeded  at  once  to  his  name  and  to  his  prejudices.  How 
could  the  adherents  of  the  Reformed  faith  be  expected  to  feel 
no  joy  that  Heaven  had  deigned  to  interfere  in  their  behalf  by 
the  removal  of  the  most  determined  foe  of  their  doctrines,  the 
sworn  advocate  of  their  extermination?  Accordingly,  the  first 
impulse,  at  the  court  of  Henry  of  Navarre  and  in  the  city  of 
La  Rochelle,  was  to  indulge  in  public  manifestations  of  joy  and 
to  offer  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God.  But  wiser  and  more 
humane  counsels  prevailed.     If  the  result  was  a  pros- 

but  abstain  _  _   _        *■    ■'  .  x 

from  unseemly  pect  ot  rehei  trom  the  violence  or  the  most  relentless 
of  foes,  the  means  by  which  that  result  had  been 
reached  deserved  only  the  reprobation,  as  they  awakened  the 
disgust,  of  every  honorable  man.  The  Huguenots,  indeed, 
breathed  more  freely,  now  that  the  Duke  of  Guise  was  no 
more ;  but  they  could  not  forget  that  his  death  had  been  com- 
passed by  treachery.  As  for  the  contemptible  being  that 
occupied  the  throne  of  France,  although  destitute  of  every 
heroic  virtue  which  is  commonly  supposed  to  stamp  the  proper 
Vol.  II. -8 


114      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  X. 

candidate  for  royalty,  he  had  succeeded  in  proving  to  the  entire 
world  that  he  was  not  only  a  weakling  and  a  coward  too  timid 
to  resent  insults  in  a  manly  fashion,  but  a  perjurer  whom  not 
the  most  solemn  oath  taken  on  the  very  wafer  in  the  holiest  of 
sacraments  could  bind,  a  dastardly  assassin  without  a  spark  of 
knightly  honor  in  his  breast.  The  picture  of  the  effeminate 
voluptuary,  given  over  in  secret  to  loathsome  vice,  save  when  in 
well-simulated  devotion  he  walked  barefooted  to  some  shrine  to 
implore  the  long-denied  boon  of  a  son  and  heir,  became  more 
repulsive  as  the  popular  imagination  essayed  to  add  the  traits 
of  the  poltroon,  crouching  in  his  innermost  closet  while  the 
daggers  of  his  guards  were  despatching  in  his  bedchamber  the 
nobleman  w7ho  had  been  enticed  thither  by  protestations  of  af- 
fection and  confidence. 

So  the  bonfires  were  not  lighted  in  the  streets  of  La  Rochelle. 
and  the  cannon  were  not  fired  in  token  of  joy,  and  the  worthy 
burghers  re-echoed  the  sentiments  which  Duplessis  Mornay  bo 
decidedly  expressed  in  their  Hotel  de  Ville  :  "  Let  it  not  be  said 
that  the  adherents  of  the  Reformed  religion  have  by  a  solemn 
act  approved  a  deed  of  too  doubtful  a  character  !  "  None  the 
less  was  there  fervent  gratitude  to  Heaven  for  the  wonderful 
manner  in  which  retribution  had  again  been  visited  upon  their 
adversaries.     "  Sire,"  wrote  Duplessis  Mornav  to  the 

Duplessis  Mor-         .  ^  .  ,  .  _  *   . 

nay's  words  on  King  or  JNavarre,  on  the  first  receipt  or  the  intelli- 
gence, "we  have  reason  to  praise  God.  His  judg- 
ments are  great,  and  the  favor  He  has  shown  to  us  is  not  small. 
that  you  have  been  avenged  of  your  enemies  without  defiling 
your  hands  with  their  blood."2  Still  more  feelingly  did  the 
same  great  man  write  to  the  aged  reformer  of  Geneva,  Theo- 
dore Beza,  in  allusion  both  to  the  death  of  Guise  and  to  Hu- 
guenot successes  which  will  soon  occupy  our  attention  :  "  Sir. 
God  smites  with  hard  blows  whenever  it  pleases  Him.  Of  such 
a  character  is  this  stroke,  so  much  the  greater  in  itself  as  it  was 

1  "  QuMl  ne  fust  point  dit,  que  ceux  de  la  religion  approuvassent  par  un 
acte  solemnel  une  action  trop  ambigue."  Vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  125.  See. 
also,  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  154. 

2  Duplessis  Mornay  to  the  King  of  Navarre,  December  26,  1588,  Memoirea, 

iv.  277-279. 


1589.  OPEN  REBELLION   OF  THE  LEAGUE.  115 

neither  hoped  for  nor  dreaded  ;  and  so  much  the  greater  for  us, 
as  neither  our  souls  nor  our  hands  were  concerned  in  it.  At 
the  same  time,  He  has  also  blessed  our  arms  in  the  taking  of 
Niort.  So  many  benedictions  make  me  afraid !  Let  us  pray 
that  He  will  grant  us  the  grace  to  render  Him  thanks  for 
them  !  "  ' 

It  must  not,  however,  be  imagined  that  the  Huguenots  suf- 
fered themselves  to  be  deceived  respecting  the  conflict  in  which 
The  struggle  they  were  engaged.  So  far  from  anticipating  a 
not  ended.  speedy  reconciliation  between  the  Kings  of  France 
and  of  Navarre,  and  a  cessation  of  the  proscriptive  measures 
against  Protestantism,  statesmen  saw  that  Henry  of  Yalois 
would  be  compelled  to  vindicate  his  claims  to  orthodoxy  by 
continuing  the  war  against  reputed  heretics  with  undiminished, 
if  not,  indeed,  with  increased,  activity.  Only  after  months 
should  have  elapsed  could  it  be  hoped  that  necessity  or  expedi- 
ency might  lead  him  to  renounce  a  struggle  forced  upon  him 
by  the  enemies  of  his  crown,  and  might  induce  him  to  call  in 
the  assistance  of  Henry  of  Navarre  and  his  followers,  the  most 
sincere  and  trustworthy  of  his  subjects.'2 

The  city  of  ^siort,  situated  about  midway  between  La  Po- 
chelle  and  Poitiers,  had  long  been  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the 
Huguenots.  Strong  in  their  fancied  security,  the  inhabitants 
(most  of  them  strong  partisans  of  the  League)  had  not  con- 

3  *<  Pryons-le  qu'il  nous  donne  la  grace  de  lui  en  rendre  graces."  Letter  of 
December  30,  1588,  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  iv.  284.  In  a  letter 
dated  a  day  earlier  a  sentence  occurs  which  well  merits  to  be  reproduced 
here  :  "Or  voyons  nous  que  c'est  de  se  tier  en  Dieu,  qui  scait  abreger  les 
desseings  des  hommes  comme  il  lui  plaist,  et  confondre  les  entreprises  d'vmg 
siecle  en  une  matinee."  Letter  to  Pujolz,  ibid.,  iv.  283.  So,  too,  he  wrote 
to  La  Noue,  "  Bras-de-fer :  "  "Certes,  autrefois  nous  avons  este  accables 
des  fleaux  de  Dieu  ;  maintenant  nous  le  sommes  de  ses  graces,"  Ibid.,  iv. 
291. 

'2  Duplessis  Mornay's  views  were  thus  expressed  :  "  Que  pour  ceste  muta- 
tion il  [le  roy  de  Navarre]  n'avoit  rien  a  changer  en  la  conduite  de  ses  affaires 
ny  dedans  ny  dehors ;  par  ce  que  le  roy  se  sentira  a  taut  plus  oblige  a  f aire  le 
bon  catholique,  et  n'ozera  de  plusieurs  mois  traicter  de  paix  avec  luy  ;  au 
contraire  luy  jettra  tant  plustost  ses  forces  sur  les  braz — plus  foibles,  neant- 
moius,  par  ce  que  le  Due  de  Mayenne,  qui  sur  ceste  douleur  redoublera  ses 
effortz,  les  pourra  distraire."     Vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  124. 


116      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  X. 

tented  themselves  with  laying  in  an  immense  store  of  provisions 

and  a  good  quantity  of  munitions  of  war ;  but,  by  their  raids  in 

every  direction,  they  had  made  it  impossible  for  any 

Capture  of  J  .     '        .  J .  _  l  .    ,      ,  .        , 

Niort  by  the  one  suspected  ol  being  a  rrotestant  to  inhabit  the 
open  country.  Their  insolence  had  of  late  become  bo 
great  that,  having  killed  a  grand  provost  of  the  King  of  Xa- 
varre  in  a  combat  just  outside  of  the  walls,  they  had  subse- 
quently amused  themselves  by  dragging  his  dead  body  ignomin- 
iously  through  the  streets  of  the  city,  and  then  hanging  it  upon 
the  gallows.  It  was  therefore  with  special  satisfaction  that  the 
Huguenot  prince  permitted  Duplessis  Mornay  to  arrange  a  plan 
for  the  capture  of  the  place.  The  execution  was  committed  to 
other  chiefs,  and  especially  to  Monsieur  de  Saint  Gelais,  who, 
as  the  patrimonial  estates  which  gave  him  his  territorial  desig- 
nation were  not  far  from  the  northern  gate  of  Xiort,  might  be 
supposed  to  feel  more  than  ordinary  interest  in  the  undertak- 
ing. Right  well  did  he  discharge  himself  of  his  trust,  with 
the  help  of  his  brave  associates.  The  moon  was  bright  on  the 
night  chosen  for  the  attack,  but  the  Huguenots  waited  in  the 
neighborhood  until  it  had  fully  set.  Then,  leaving  their  horses 
in  charge  of  grooms — for  they  had  ridden  hard  to  reach  the 
rendezvous — they  applied  themselves  to  their  task  without  de- 
lay. Two  parties  placed  their  ladders  against  the  walls,  and 
hastened  to  scale  the  enemy's  defences.  A  third  detachment  af- 
fixed a  petard  to  the  gate  and  attempted  to  blow  it  in,  but  suc- 
ceeded only  in  making  an  opening  large  enough  to  admit  them 
man  by  man.  The  noise  of  the  explosion  awoke  the  inhabitants 
from  their  sleep.  But,  although  they  made  a  stout  resistance, 
the  citizens  were  no  match  for  the  valor  and  skill  of  the  Hugue- 
nots. In  a  few  hours  Niort  was  in  the  hands  of  the  officers  of  the 
King  of  Navarre,  and  when  that  prince  himself  arrived  on  the 
scene,  from  St.  Jean  d'Angely,  the  castle  promptly  capitulated  at 
his  summons.  To  its  governor — no  other  than  Jean  de  Chourses, 
Sieur  de  Malicorne,  the  nobleman  to  whom  Eenee  de  France 
had,  at  Montargis,  twenty-five  years  before,  returned  a  defiant 
answer  well  becoming  a  daughter  of   Louis   the  Twelfth ' — 


See  the  Rise  of  the  Huguenots.,  ii.  111. 


1589.  OPEN  REBELLION   OF  THE   LEAGUE.  117 

were  accorded  favorable  terms  of  surrender,  and  he  was  per- 
mitted to  retire  to  a  friendly  refuge.     Never,  in  fact,  did  the 
difference  between  the  Huguenot  mode  of  warfare  and 
twcen  Hugue-  the  conduct  approved  and  practised   by  the  League 

not  warfare  ,  ,  ,..  ,  .  ,  .     °     _ 

and  that  of  show  itself  more  distinctly  than  in  the  surprise  of 
Niort.  True,  it  cannot  be  asserted  that  the  ideal  excel- 
lence of  discipline  and  of  morality  enjoined  by  the  ordinances 
of  Admiral  Coligny,  in  the  first  civil  war,  had  been  maintained 
intact  throughout  an  entire  generation  of  almost  continuous 
hostilities,  and  among  men  embittered  by  the  recollection  of 
relentless  persecution  and  cowardly  massacres.  But  there  were 
some  outrages  they  scarcely  ever  committed.  They  certainly 
plundered  the  unfortunate  townsmen  of  Niort  without  stint,  and 
probably  with  but  little  compunction.  The  capture  of  a  city 
whose  granaries  contained  provision  enough  to  sustain  an  army 
of  twenty  thousand  men  for  two  years  was  not  an  every-day  oc- 
currence, and  the  opportunity  was  well  improved.  Indeed,  so 
determinedly  did  the  Huguenots  pillage  as  to  prove  that  they 
were  moved  less  by  cupidity  than  by  a  thirst  for  revenge.1 
But  not  a  single  man  was  murdered  in  cold  blood ;  and  not  a 
single  one  of  the  feebler  sex,  usually  the  victims  of  the  lustful 
passions  of  a  successful  soldiery,  suffered  any  dishonor.  The 
Huguenots,  at  Niort  as  elsewhere,  showed  by  their  actions  that 
they  might  wage  a  warfare  whose  code  was  stern  and  bloody 
enough,  but  that  they  were  neither  assassins  nor  enemies  of  the 
purity  of  woman.  One  wealthy  citizen,  indeed,  was  ordered  to 
be  hanged  for  past  treasonable  language  respecting  the  King  of 
Navarre  and  other  members  of  the  royal  house  of  France  ;  and 
the  dead  bod}7  of  the  author  of  the  inhuman  treatment  vis- 
ited upon  the  grand  provost  of  the  King  of  Navarre,  having 

1  u  A  la  pointe  du  jour  le  soldat  se  mit  a  piller  le  ville  ;  et  il  le  fit  avec  tant 
d'acharnement,  quon  s'appercevoit  aisement  qu'il  etoit  moins  anime  par 
l'avarice,  que  par  la  vengeance."  De  Thou,  vii.  362.  The  writer  of  the  nar- 
rative given  in  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue  (iii.  158)  makes  the  Huguenot  sol- 
diers more  moderate  than  they  might  have  been  expected  to  be  in  their  treat- 
ment of  a  city  so  conspicuously  in  the  interest  of  their  enemies.  A  tradesman 
having  in  his  house  merchandise  to  the  value  of  ten  or  fifteen  thousand  livres 
did  well  to  come  off  with  a  payment  of  two  or  three  hundred  crowns,  a  sum 
equal  to  thrice  as  many  livres. 


11  8      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  X 

been  discovered,  was  itself  suspended  for  a  while  to  the  very 
gibbet  upon  which  the  corpse  of  the  provost  had  been  exposed 
to  the  eyes  of  the  populace.  But  of  real  atrocities  there  was 
no  instance.  None  the  less,  however,  was  a  pamphlet  pub- 
Fictitious  lislied  in  Paris  purporting  to  give  a  full  account  of 
Huguenot  tne  execrable  conduct  of  the  Huguenots  at  the  taking 
atrocities.  0f  Niort.  The  Eoman  Catholic  historian  De  Thou, 
than  whom  we  have  no  more  trustworthy  guide  in  the  intri- 
cate maze  of  a  period  abounding  in  contradictory  statements 
of  facts,  affirms,  from  personal  investigation,  that  the  whole 
story  was  a  baseless  fabrication  of  those  who  considered  it  a 
meritorious  act  to  tell  falsehoods  to  the  disadvantage  of  her- 
etics.1 

The  arms  of  the  Huguenots  were  not  always  so  fortunate. 

La  Ganache,  a  small  but  strongly  fortified  place,  two  or  three 

.  T     leagues  from  the  ocean,  on  the  confines  of  Poitou  and 

Failure  at  La  o  ' 

Ganache.  Brittany,  after  long  detaining  the  royal  army  under 
the  command  of  the  Duke  of  Nevers,  finally  surrendered.  Yet 
even  here  the  disastrous  result  was  due  less  to  military  supe- 
riority than  to  an  apparently  fortuitous  circumstance.  The  Hu- 
guenot garrison  had  entered  into  an  engagement  to  evacuate 
the  place  unless  reinforcements  should  arrive  within  a  fixed 
number  of  days.  But  Henry  of  Navarre,  hastening  to  their 
relief,  had  fallen  dangerously  ill  by  the  way,  and  was  compelled 
to  give  up  the  undertaking  ;  while  La  Bochefoucault,  La  Tru- 
mouille,  and  Chatillon,  whom  he  sent  on  in  his  stead,  were 
-misled  by  their  guides,  themselves  either  bribed  to  go  astray 
or  ignorant  of  the  country.      At  all  events,  La  Ganache  had 


1  "  Ceux  qui  ecrivoient  alors  a  Paris,  gens  sans  honneur  et  sans  jugemeut, 
font  une  relation  affreuse  des  meurtres  et  des  exces  cominis  par  les  Protestans 
a  la  prise  de  cette  place.  Mais  en  passant  par-la  quelques  mois  apres,  je  re- 
connus  par  moi-meme  la  faussete  de  ces  calomnies."  De  Thou,  vii.  963. 
Upon  this  siege  see,  also,  Recueil  des  choses  uieniorables,  682,  683  ;  Agrippa 
d'Aubigne,  iii.  154-158;  Cavriana's  letters  of  December  31,  1588,  and  Janu- 
ary 16,  1589  ;  Negociations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  852,  855  ;  Memoires  de  la 
Ligue,  iii.  162-172.  The  last-named  authority,  which  also  enters  into  details, 
gives  us  (p.  170)  the  title  of  the  pamphlet  printed  at  Paris  (,l  Les  cruautez  ex- 
ecrables  commises  par  les  Heretiques  contre  les  Catholiques  de  la  ville  de  Niorl 
en  Poitou  ")  and  the  specific  accusations  it  contained. 


1589.  OPEN  REBELLION   OF  THE  LEAGUE.  119 

already  fallen  when  the  Huguenot   troops  came  in  sight  of  the 
walls.1 

The  very  circumstance  that  the  historian  is  called  upon  to 
note  the  capture  of  so  insignificant  a  place  by  the  royal  troops 
is  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  futility  of  the  undertaking  to  conquer 
the  Huguenots,  and  to  carry  into  effect  the  stipulations  of  the 
Edict  of  Union.  The  court  itself  and  foreign  ambassadors 
recognized  the  fact  that  the  loss,  in  the  very  heart  of  Poitou,  of 
so  strong  and  wealthy  a  city  as  Niort,  together  with  the  capitu- 
lation of  the  neighboring  town  of  St.  Maixent,  which  at  once 
submitted  to  the  Protestants  of  its  own  accord,  was  of  far 
greater  moment  than  the  capture  of  a  paltry  stronghold  like 
La  Ganache  amid  the  snow  and  rain  of  lower  Poitou.2  But  if 
anything  more  was  needed  to  show  the  hopeless  character  of 
the  crusade  for  the  extermination  of  Protestantism,  to  which 
Henry  of  Valois  had  pledged  himself  anew  after  the  death  of 
the  Duke  of  Guise,  it  was  found  in  the  rapid  dissipation  of 
the  army  of  the  Duke  of  Severs.  The  news  of  the 
the  army  of  bloody  tragedy  of  Blois  had  reached  the  besiegers  be- 
fore the  advent  of  the  new  year,  but  it  was  not  until 
after  the  surrender  of  La  Ganache  that  it  suddenly  bore  fruit. 
Men  knew  not  what  to  think  or  to  do.  Not  a  nobleman  but 
was  restless  and  either  asked  leave  to  retire,  or  showed  that  he 
would  retire  without  the  consent  of  the  commanding  general. 
The  partisans  of  the  League  were  unwilling  to  battle  for  the 

1  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  585-603  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  315,  316,  363-365  ;  Re- 
cueil  des  choses  memorables,  681,  684.  The  siege  of  La  Ganache  seems,  how- 
ever, to  be  entitled  to  some  honorable  distinction,  because,  first,  of  the  hu- 
manity of  the  Huguenot  garrison,  on  the  4th  of  January,  in  bringing  into  the 
walls  and  carefully  nursing  the  wounded  left  by  the  royalists  in  the  ditch 
after  an  unsuccessful  assault ;  secondly,  because  of  the  kindly  return  for  this 
on  the  part  of  Nevers  and  his  army  at  the  time  of  the  surrender  ;  and,  thirdly, 
because  of  the  good  faith  of  the  Huguenot  governor  of  the  place,  Duplessis- 
Gecte,  in  carrying  out  in  good  faith  his  promise  to  surrender  La  Ganache, 
although  he  had  heard  the  signal  guns  of  the  approaching  relief  under 
Chatillon  and  La  Tremouille.  The  siege  lasted  from  Friday,  December  16, 
1588,  to  Saturday.  January  14,  1589. 

2  The  contrast  is  drawn  by  Cavriana,  in  his  letter  to  Serguidi  of  Blois,  Jan- 
uary 16,  1580.  Ncgociations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  855.  He  styles  (ibid. ,  iv.  852) 
Niort  ''fortissima  e  richissima  terra." 


120      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ctt  X. 

assassin  of  their  favorite  chief,  the  idol  of  the  ultra-Catholic 
faction.  Those  who  wavered  between  the  two  parties  were 
anxious  to  gain  time  for  consideration.  Trimmers  desired  to 
be  where  they  might  better  observe  the  drift  of  affairs.  The 
Duke  of  Severs  himself  was  half-hearted  and  quite  willing  to 
lead  back  what  troops  could  be  held  together  to  the  city  of  Blois, 
whence  he  shortly  retired  to  his  own  estates  on  the  upper  Loire. 
To  tell  the  story  in  the  fewest  words,  the  formidable  expedition 
of  the  king,  which  was  to  have  reduced  all  Guyerme,  disappeared 
from  before  men's  eyes  in  a  manner  quite  incomprehensible  to 
all  save  those  who  understand  the  slight  degree  of  cohesion  that 
existed  in  the  armies  of  the  sixteenth  century — an  inherited 
weakness  of  the  preceding  period.  Xoblemen  following  the 
king,  much  in  the  fashion  of  the  feudatories  of  the  middle  ages, 
at  their  own  charges  for  the  support  of  themselves  and  their 
retainers,  claimed,  and  certainly  exercised,  the  privilege  of 
coming  and  going  according  as  the  fancy  seized  them  ;  while 
the  mercenary  troops,  when  their  wages  were  withheld  or  paid 
only  at  irregular  intervals,  were  wont  to  take  matters  into  their 
own  hands,  and  abandon  with  little  ceremony  an  unprofitable 
service.  The  most  powerful  army  was  capable  of  melting  away 
like  a  mist.  As  for  that  of  the  Duke  of  Nevers,  the  grateful 
Huguenots  saw,  in  the  unexpected  manner  in  which  it  vanished 
from  sight,  nothing  less  than  a  sign  that  the  finger  of  God  had 
touched  the  fabric,  and  it  had  instantly  crumbled  to  pit 

Meanwhile  the  fortunes  of  France  were  trembling  in  the  bal- 
ance.    In  the  castle  of  an  obscure  village,   Henry  of  Navarre, 
ill  of  pleurisy — as  many   thought,  beyond    hope   of 

Henry  of  recoverv — seemed  likely  to  pay  with  his  life  the  peil- 
Navarre.  "  * 

alty  of  too  reckless  exposure  in  severe  wintry  weather 
while  hastening  to  the  relief  of  his  fellow  Protestants.2     The 


1  "  En  un  moment  ceste  grande  et  furieuse  armee  s'en  alia  en  pieces,  conime 
frappee  du  doigt  de  Dieu."  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  003.  See  Recueil  des 
choses  memorables,  684  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  365. 

2  "  Le  roi  de  Navarre  s'acheminant  a,  la  Ganache,  le  9  de  ce  niois,  tomba 
malade  d'une  forte  pleuresie  au  coste  gauche,  sans  medecin.  en  ung  village. 
Nous  l'avons  veu  en  danger  extresme."  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Morlas.  January 
21,  1589,  Memoires,  iv.  310. 


1589.  OPEN   REBELLION   OF   THE   LEAGUE.  121 

Huguenots   of    independent    La    Hochelle,   not   less    than   the 

Huguenots  of  more    exposed  districts,   wept  over  the    danger 

impending,   and  prayed   earnestly  to   heaven   that  it   might  be 

averted.     "  The  news  was  brought  to  La  Rochelle," 

General  anxi-  1  1  .    . 

etyatLa  wrote  a  contemporary  and  apparently  a  participant  m 
the  events  he  describes,  "  about  nightfall  on  the  thir- 
teenth of  January,  1589,  which  might  be  the  fourth  da}T  of  the 
king's  illness.  At  once  the  entire  population  was  summoned, 
by  the  ringing  of  the  bells,  to  assemble  in  the  churches  for 
prayer.  It  was  about  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  an  unusual 
hour  for  such  convocations.  .  Yet,  necessity  requiring  it,  and 
everybody  beino;  informed  of  the  cause,  never  was  there  seen 
in  that  city  such  a  concourse  of  people  in  the  churches.  All 
the  inhabitants  without  distinction,  even  to  the  children  and 
the  servants,  left  their  houses  to  run  thither.  So  great  was  the 
concourse  that  many,  not  being  able  to  enter  the  churches, 
which  were  full  to  overflowing,  returned  home  very  sad,  but, 
nevertheless,  engaged  in  private  prayers,  answering  to  the  pub- 
lic prayers  that  were  at  that  time  offered,  with  great  mourning 
and  many  tears.  Few  persons  were  ignorant  of  the  greatness 
of  the  affliction  for  all  France  in  general,  had  God,  at  a  season 
so  full  of  trouble  and  confusion,  removed  this  first  prince  of 
the  blood,  endowed  with  so  many  graces.  The  extraordinary 
prayers  were  continued  for  several  days,  until  the  certain  news 
of  his  recovery  was  received."  1 

Nor,  if  we  may  credit  the  accounts  that  come  to  us,  was 
the  subject  of  so  much  solicitude  himself  insensible  to  the  dan- 
ger of  his  situation  or  to  the  claims  of  piety.     He 

Henry's  re-        °  it/ 

ugiouspro-      professed  patient  submission  to  the  will  of  God.     He 

fessions.  L  L 

was  ready  to  die,  if  that  were  the  pleasure  of  the 
Almighty.  His  only  regret  was  the  need  of  his  presence  which 
the  Church  in  France  might  experience,  the  loss  of  his  fidelity 
which  the  entire  kingdom  would  feel.  In  the  midst  of  his 
sufferings,  however,  we  are  told  that  he  never  intermitted  his 
care  of  the  military  concerns  of  the  Huguenot  cause. 

Such  was  the  anxiety  of  the  Huguenots  respecting  the  life  of 


1  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  602. 


122     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  X. 

the  prince  upon  whom  they  had  conferred  the  proud  title  of 
Protector  of  their  churches.  Such  were  the  religious  sentiments 
which  that  prince  himself  professed  to  entertain  when  appre- 
hensive that  he  might  be  on  his  death-bed.  That  these  senti- 
ments stand  in  marked  contrast  with  the  tenor  of  his  life  in 
times  of  health  is  only  another  strange  phenomenon  in  a  char- 
acter full  of  inconsistencies  and  contradictions.1 

Meanwhile  it  is  necessary  once  more  to  turn  northward  and 
inquire  how  affairs  were  proceeding  at  Blois  and  in  the  capital 
of  the  kingdom. 

Henry  of  Yalois  had  slain  his  arch-enemy,  and  had  not  spared 
the  brother  of  his  victim,  whose  every  thought,  word,  and  ac- 
Firetmeas-  ti°n  had  been  war  and  bloodshed.2  Other  heads  of 
KhiSg°ofthe  the  League  had  been  thrown  into  prison,  and  hourly 
France.  expected  a  like  fate.     Up  to  this  moment,  the  meas- 

ures taken  had  been  prompt  and  decided.  In  continued  prompt- 
ness and  decision  lay  the  sole  chance  of  success.  Sagacious  men 
recognized  the  fact  instantly.  Dr.  Cavriana,  on  the  morrow 
of  the  duke's  assassination  and  on  the  very  day  of  the  execu- 
tion of  the  cardinal,  wrote  home  that  the  present  occurrence 
would  serve  to  deter  others  from  conspiring  against  their 
princes ;  for,  as  the  king  had  sensibly  remarked,  no  one  had 
ever  been  known  to  rebel  against  his  natural  lord  but  he  had 
sooner  or  later  paid  the  penalty.  Six  or  seven  of  the  authors  of 
the  revolt,  intimate  associates  of  Guise,  had  been  apprehended, 
and  would  shortly  be  executed.  The  king  had  despatched 
Alphonso  Ornano,  better  known  as  the  "  Corsican  Alphonso," 
to  Lyons.  His  object  was  to  make  sure  of  the  Duke  of  May- 
enne  and  persuade  him  to  remain  faithful  in  his  allegiance, 
despite  the  death  of  his  brothers.  His  majesty  had  taken  other 
precautionary  measures.     But  Henry  could  not  stop.     He  must 

1  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  ii.  601 ;  Recueil  des  choses  memorable?,  C84  ; 
Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  160.  Madame  Duplessis  Mornay,  in  her  Mernoires, 
169,  confirms  the  statements  of  others :  "II  n'avoit  consolation  en  son  mal 
que  de  faire  chanter  des  psalmes,  et  parler  de  sainctz  et  bons  propos. " 

2  "  Telle  fut  la  fin  du  cardinal,  qui  ne  souffloit  que  la  guerre,  ne  ronfloit  que 
massacres,  et  ne  haletoit  que  sang,  lequel  porte  par  terre  par  un  juste  jtige- 
ment  de  Dieu,  se  sentist  ce  jour  veautre  dans  son  propre  sang."    Lestoile,  i.  269. 


1589.  OPEN  REBELLION   OF  THE   LEAGUE.  123 

either  shed  more  blood,  or,  if  he  should  pardon  the  rebels,  he 
must  be  forever  in  fear  of  his  life,  through  the  lying  in  wait  of 
the  many  great  and  brave  members  of  the  family  of  Guise. 
These  would  never  forgive  the  monarch  for  what  he  had  done, 
and  certainly  few  men  would  be  found  to  trust  him  after  break- 
ing his  word  confirmed  by  so  many  oaths.1 

A  week   had  scarcely  passed,  however,  before  every  man  of 

ordinary   sense   began  to  exclaim   at  the   sluggishness  of   the 

kino-.     He  apparently  thought  that  everything  was 

He  soon  re-  _       &  _         rr  J  to.  J    .        S 

lapses  into  done  at  the  very  moment  when  an  energetic  person 
would  have  thought  that  nothing  was  as  yet  accom- 
plished, and  would  have  set  himself  with  relentless  determina- 
tion about  the  task  which  he  had  commenced.  "  Xow  at  last  I 
am  king  !  "  he  exclaimed  after  despatching  Guise  ;  yet  never 
had  he  been  less  a  king  than  he  was  then  and  from  that  time 
forward.  He  failed  to  make  instant  provision  for  securing  the 
cities  of  Paris  and  Orleans,  both  of  which  he  might  have  gained 
in  the  first  surprise  and  consternation  resulting  from  the  news 
of  the  duke's  assassination.  Above  all,  he  neglected  to  recall 
Xevers  and  his  army  at  once  from  Poitou — a  step  urged  by 
Marshal  d'Aumont  and  other  patriotic  advisers.  He  preferred 
to  believe  the  treacherous  Duke  of  Retz  and  the  cardinal,  his 
brother,  who,  it  is  true,  conceded  the  advantage  of  having 
about  the  king's  person  the  large  accession  of  strength  which 
Xevers  would  bring,  but  maintained  that,  should  Henry  recall 
that  general,  when  warring  against  the  heretics,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  fighting  against  Catholics,  he  would  run  the  risk  of 
being  himself  blamed  as  a  heretic  and,  indeed,  an  infidel.  In 
short,  he  was  told  that  thus  he  would  completely  alienate  the 
people,  already  incensed  with  him  both  on  account  of  the  in- 
tolerable burdens  under  which  they  groaned  and  by  reason  of 
the  murder  of  Guise.2     It  was  not  the  first  time  that  courtiers 

1  "  But  in  truth,"  added  the  Florentine,  apologetically,  "his  majesty  was 
in  very  great  danger  of  being  irretrievably  ruined  before  the  close  of  the 
states  general" — "  di  lasciarvi  la  pelle."  Letter  of  Cavriana,  Blois,  December 
24,  1588,  Negociations  avec  la  Toscane.  iv.  844,  845. 

5  "  Cosi,"  says  Cavriana,  "  vinsero  la  risoluzione  del  Re."  Letter  of  February 
9, 1589,  Negociations  avec  la  Toscane,  iv.  859.    See,  too,  De  Thou,  vii.  352,  353. 


1 24     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  X. 

preferred  the  public  ruin  to  the  sacrifice  of  their  private  inter- 
ests. So  long  as  Nevers  remained  where  he  was,  the  large 
possessions  of  Retz  and  his  brother  in  lower  Poitou  were  com- 
paratively safe;  should  he  withdraw,  the  Huguenots  would  in- 
fallibly capture  them  all.1 

Nothing  could  surpass  the  fury  of  the  clergy  and  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Paris,  when  the  tidings  of  the  tragedy  of  Blois  reached 
The  fury  of  the  banks  of  the  Seine.  The  crime  of  laying  violent 
the  Parisians.  jian(js  Up0n  the  cardinal,  upon  whose  head  the  sacred 
oil  had  been  poured,  was,  in  one  aspect  of  the  case,  more  un- 
pardonable than  the  assassination  of  his  brother,  because  it 
partook  of  the  character  of  sacrilege.  But,  after  all,  it  was  the 
murder  of  their  favorite  hero,  the  duke,  that  stirred  the  Paris- 
ians to  madness.  The  miserable  prince  who  had  perpetrated  it, 
hitherto  more  a  subject  of  contempt  and  loathing  than  of  ha- 
tred, at  once  became  in  their  eyes  the  incarnation  of  evil.  There 
was  not  a  secret  story  of  orgies,  celebrated  in  the  Louvre  or 
elsewhere  by  the  monarch  and  his  minions,  that  was  not  now 
dragged  to  the  light  and  repeated  with  fresh  additions  and  ex- 
aggerations. The  charges  of  atheism  and  sorcery  were  boldly 
advanced  against  one  whose  devotion  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  had  been  his  chief  recommendation  to  the  popular  fa- 
vor. Wits  discovered  that  they  could,  from  the  words  "  Henri 
de  Valois,"  by  a  simple  transposition  of  the  letters,  exactly  make 
"Vilain  Herodes;"  and  the  anagram,  connecting  the  martyrs 
of  Blois  with  the  innocent  babes  slaughtered  at  Bethlehem, 
mightily  pleased  the  fancy  of  an  age  over-fond  of  such  con- 
ceits. Even  Catharine  de1  Medici  came  in  for  her  share  in  the 
prevailing  denunciation.  Men  would  not  believe  her  to  have 
been  free  of  complicity  in  the  treachery  of  her  son.  The  ser- 
vices she  had  rendered  the  Papal  Church  on  Saint  Bartholo- 
mew's Day  were  forgotten.  So,  when  the  news  came  that  she 
was  actually  dead,  while  one  fervid  preacher  exclaimed  in  Script- 


1  Cavriana,  ubi  supra.  It  must  be  noted  that  the  Duchy  of  Retz  comprised 
a  considerable  territory  in  Poitou  (within  the  part  of  the  modern  Department 
of  Loire  Inferieure  that  lies  south  of  the  Loire).  Its  capital  town  was  Macher 
coul,  situated  on  the  little  river  Falleron  a  short  distance  above  its  mouth. 


1589.  OPEN   REBELLION   OF  THE  LEAGUE.  125 


ural  language,  with  reference  to  Guise :  "  O  holy  and  glorious 
martyr  of  God,  blessed  is  the  womb  that  bare  thee  and  the 
paps  that  thou  hast  sucked  !  "  another  from  a  neighboring  pul- 
pit gave  expression  to  his  own  uncertainty  regarding  the  claims 
of  Pope  Clement  VII. 's  niece  to  a  share  in  the  pious  interces- 
sions of  the  faithful.  He  thought  it  doubtful,  he  said,  whether 
or  not  they  were  called  upon  to  pray  for  the  repose  of  the  sotil 
of  a  woman  who  had  done  much  good,  but  accompanied  by 
much  ill,  and  probably  more  of  the  latter  than  of  the  former. 
On  the  whole,  however,  he  advised  his  hearers  to  take  the  risk 
of  giving  her  a  Pater  Foster  and  an  Ave  Maria,  and  letting  her 
get  what  advantage  from  them  she  might.  At  any  rate,  there 
would  not  be  much  lost.1 

I  need  not  speak  at  length  respecting  the  tumult  and  confu- 
sion that  ensued.     It  seems  well  established  that  a  little  more 
vigor  on  the  part  of  the  government,  and  a  little  more 

The '"Seize" 

save  Paris  for  concert  among  the  best-disposed  citizens,  would  have 
spared  the  capital  its  shameful  fate  of  subjection,  for 
the  next  four  years  and  over,  to  the  power  of  the  League— a 
great  part  of  the  time  to  the  irresponsible  sway  of  a  self-con- 
stituted body  unknown  to  the  law.  As  it  was,  the  "  Sixteen," 
promptly  recovering  from  their  momentary  discouragement, 
seized  upon  the  reins  of  government.  The  chief  municipal 
officers — the  prevot  des  marchands  and  the  echevins — were 
prisoners  at  Blois.  Had  the  parliament  received  the  earliest 
intelligence,  the  judges  would  have  taken  possession  of  the  city 
in  the  king's  interest.  But  the  "  Sixteen"  were  so  fortunate  as 
to  be  first  informed,  and  it  was  to  them,  said  the  League,  that 
the  salvation  of  Paris  was  due.2  At  their  instigation,  and  con- 
trary to  the  will  of  the  better  class  of  the  citizens,  the  Duke  of 
Aumale,  the  only  chief  of  note  then  within  the  walls  of  the 
capital,  was  elected  governor.  The  most  august  judicial  body 
in  France  was  not  safe  from  the  insults  of  the  new  usurpers. 
The  Parliament  of  Paris  had  early  sent  to  petition  the  king  for 

1  Lestoile,  i.  279. 

2  Dialogue  du  Maheustre  et  du  Manant  (reprinted  in  the  Ratisbon  edition  of 
the  Satyre  Menippee,  Preuves,  iii.  446-449).  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  649, 
650. 


126      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.      Ch.  X. 

the  release  of  the  prevot  des  marchands  and  his  companions 
in  captivity,  employing  as  envoy  one  of  its  most  distinguished 
members,  President  Le  Maistre.  Instead  of  securing  the  boon 
sought  for,  Le  Maistre  brought  back  letters  patent  from  his 
majesty,  which  were  to  be  recorded  and  published  by  parlia- 
ment, extending  pardon  to  his  subjects — as  though  the  people 
had  offended  him — and  justifying  the  execution  of  the  duke 
and  cardinal,  and  the  incarceration  of  the  prevot  des  marchands 
and  others.  As  it  was  believed  that  parliament  was  plotting 
the  king's  restoration  to  power  in  the  capital,  three  of  the  "  Six- 
teen "  were  now  deputed  to  arrest  ten  or  twelve  of  the  most 
prominent  of  the  members.  But  when  their  spokesman,  the 
Dignified  at-  notorious  Bussy,  made  his  appearance  in  the  "  cham- 
parilameS6  Dre  ^or®e  "  where  the  suspected  persons  sat,  a  striking 
of  Pans.  scene  took  place.  Parliament  could  still,  on  occasion, 
muster  up  its  ancient  dignity.  No  sooner  had  Bussy  pronounced 
the  name  of  the  first  president,  as  one  of  those  whom  he  was 
commanded  to  apprehend,  than  the  entire  body  of  presidents 
and  councillors  rose  as  one  man,  and  declared  their  purpose  to 
accompany  him  and  partake  of  his  perils.  In  the  streets  of 
Paris,  crossing  the  bridge  from  the  "lie  de  la  cite,"  threading 
the  narrow  lanes  to  the  Grande  Hue  Saint  Antoine,  and  marching 
down  that  great  thoroughfare,  might  be  seen  a  procession  of 
grave  and  venerable  judges,  walking,  two  and  two,  amid  the 
jeers  of  the  populace,  from  the  Palais  de  Justice  to  voluntary 
imprisonment  in  the  dungeons  of  the  Bastile.1  With  the  in- 
sult offered  to  law  in  the  persons  of  its  most  august  representa- 
tives, Paris  seemed  also  to  have  laid  aside  all  respect  fur  de- 
cency and  common  morality.  The  priests  and  monks 
cessions"       who  had  accompanied  and  emboldened    Bossy  in  his 

through  the       .  .  -  , .  r  , 

streets  of  invasion  or  parliament  set  on  root  other  processions 
of  a  less  decorous  character.  In  connection  with  ex- 
traordinary public  prayers  offered  in  the  churches  to  implore 
the  favor  of  Heaven,  a  motley  crowd  of  men  and  women,  boys 
and  girls,  paraded  the  streets  of  Paris  to  worship  at  some  fa- 


1  January  16,  1589.     Dialogue  du  Maheustre  et  do  Manant.  abi  supra,  iii 
450,  451  ;  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  651  ;  Lestoile,  i.  280. 


1589.  OPEN   REBELLION   OF   THE   LEAGUE.  ll>7 

vored  shrine.  It  was  well  that  the  time  selected  was  the  night, 
for  the  attire  of  the  participants  in  the  singular  devotion  was 
so  scanty — a  simple  shirt — that  the  eye-witness  and  chronicler 
makes  bold  to  style  them  nude.  Misdirected  zeal,  pluming  it- 
self with  the  name  of  religion,  has  at  times  assumed  strange 
forms ;  but  no  forms  perhaps  have  been  more  strange  or  re- 
volting than  the  "  naked  processions  "  of  Paris  in  the  dead  of 
the  winter  of  the  year  of  grace  1589. 1 

jSor  were  prayers  and  processions  the  only  means  employed 
to  kindle  zeal  and  compass  desired  ends.  We  have  it  upon  the 
Resort  to  authority  of  one  of  the  most  trustworthy  of  conteni- 
magic.  poraries,  whose  diary  places  us  as  nearly  as  possible 

in  the  position  of  spectators  of  the  times  in  which  he  wrote, 
that  strange  arts  were  resorted  to.  Upon  some,  at  least,  of 
the  altars  of  the  city  waxen  images  moulded  to  represent  Henry 
of  Yalois  were  placed  at  the  beginning  of  the  forty  hours  of 
special  devotion.  As  each  successive  psalm  was  repeated  the 
image  was  pricked  with  a  sharp  instrument.  But  when  the 
fortieth  psalm  was  reached  a  savage  thrust  in  the  region  of 
the  heart  was  inflicted,  accompanied  by  words  of  magical  im- 
port, intended  to  prefigure  and  render  certain  the  death  of  the 
king.2 

Meanwhile,  both  in  Paris  and  elsewhere  throughout  the  king- 
dom, the  League  took  prompt  measures  for  strengthening  it- 
self. All  persons  suspected  of  being  either  II  ugue- 
revoiutionary  nots  or  Politiques  were  put  under  arrest.  Charenton 
and  Saint  Cloud  were  garrisoned.  The  artillery  was 
drawn  out  to  reduce  the  castle  of  the  Bois  de  Vincennes  to  obe- 
dience.    The  king's  seals  were   solemnly  broken,  in  token  of 

1  It  is  but  fair  to  note  that  a  few  curates  are  said  to  have  condemned  "ces 
processions  nocturnes,  pour  ce  que,  pour  en  parler  franchement,  tout  y  estoit 
de  quaresmeprenant,  et  que  hommes  et  femmes,  filles  et  garsons  marchoient 
pesle  mesle  tout  nuds,  et  engendroient  des  fruits  autres  que  ceux  pour  la  fin 
desquels  elles  avoient  este  institutes."  Lestoile,  i.  284.  "En  chemise  et 
pieds  nuds,"  was  the  customary  fashion,  despite  the  extreme  cold.  See  Les- 
toile, i.  282,  who  enters  into  particulars  respecting  the  demoralizing  effect 
produced. 

-  So,  too,  in  the  processions,  tapers  properly  compounded  were  successively 
put  out,  with  magical  formulas      Lestoile,  i.  282,  283. 


128     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  X. 

the  renunciation  of  his  authority,  and  new  seals  were  engraved 
bearing  simple  reference  to  the  kingdom  of  France.1  Presently 
Bernardino  de  Mendoza,  in  order  to  be  near  the  fire  which  he 
desired  to  kindle  to  a  brighter  flame,  left  Blois  and  the  king's 
vicinity  without  condescending  to  ask  for  leave,  and  came  to 
Paris.  His  house  had  ever  been  the  hotbed  of  sedition  ;  but 
from  this  time  forward  the  malevolence  and  hostility  of  the 
Spanish  ambassador  and  of  his  master  became  open  and  undis- 
guised.2 In  the  theologians  of  Paris  he  found  ready  and  effi- 
cient allies.     As  early  as  on  the  seventh  of  Januarv, 

TheSorbonne     .        ^      .  ^    .  .    .         ,       ,     .  .  * 

declares  the    the  borbonne  met  to  give  spiritual  advice  respecting 

people  free 

fromitsoaths  the  present  crisis.  Two  questions  were  submitted 
for  the  adjudication  of  the  masters  in  theology  gath- 
ered to  the  number  of  some  threescore  and  ten :  First,  whether 
the  people  of  the  kingdom  of  France  could  be  freed  from  their 
oath  of  loyalty  to  Henry  the  Third  ;  and,  second,  whether  the 
same  people  could,  with  an  assured  conscience,  take  up  arms  and 
collect  money  and  contributions  for  the  defence  of  the  Catholic, 
Apostolic,  and  Roman  religion  against  the  nefarious  designs 
and  attempts  of  that  king,  and  against  his  violation  of  the  pub- 
lic faith  committed  at  Blois,  to  the  detriment  of  the  said  relig- 
ion, of  the  Edict  of  Union,  and  of  the  natural  liberty  of  the 
convocation  of  the  three  orders  of  the  realm.  To  each  of  these 
questions  the  theological  faculty,  through  its  dean,  gave  an  un- 
qualified answer  in  the  affirmative.3 

But  even  this  gracious  indorsement  of  the  rebellion  did  not 
suffice  the  chiefs  of  the  League.  The  authority  of  the  same 
parliament  which  had  recently  made  so  striking  a 
ofthepariia-  display  of  magnanimity  was  essential  to  their  suc- 
cess ;  and,  just  a  fortnight  subsequent  to  the  dramatic 
march  to  the  Bastile,  a  document  was  procured  from  it  fully 
committing  the  highest  court  of  judicature  in  France  to  the 

1  Mendoza  to  Philip  II.,  Blois,  January  5,  1589,  St.  Victor.  February  1, 
1589,  etc.,  De  Croze,  ii-  390-398. 

2  De  Thou.  vii.  (book  94)  373  :  Davila  (book  10),  390. 

3  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  686  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  374  ;  the  articles  them- 
selves in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iii.  192-194,  and  Ciniber  et  Danjou.  Archives 
curie  uses,  xii.  349-353. 


1589.  OPEN   REBELLION   OF   THE   LEAGUE.  129 

new  crusade  against  royalty.  Henry  the  Third  was  not,  it  is 
true,  mentioned  by  name,  but  the  massacre  of  Blois  was  stig- 
matized as  a  breach  of  public  faith  and  of  the  liberties  of  the 
Estates.  The  officers — from  the  presidents,  princes,  and  peers 
of  France  down  to  the  humblest  notary  connected  with  the 
body — swore  by  Almighty  God,  by  His  glorious  Mother,  by 
the  angels,  and  by  all  the  saints,  male  and  female,  of  paradise, 
that  they  would  live  and  die  in  the  Roman  Catholic  religion, 
and  that  they  would  not  spare  even  to  the  last  drop  of  their 
blood  in  its  defence.  They  furthermore  engaged  to  stand  by 
Paris  and  all  the  cities  of  the  Union,  and  to  bring  to  justice  the 
authors  of  the  murder  of  the  Duke  and  the  Cardinal  of  Guise. 
It  was  significant  that  the  declaration  expressly  stated  that  no 
one  was  excepted  from  the  provisions  of  the  paper,  whatever 
might  be  his  dignity  or  quality.1 

It  may  be  charitably  hoped  that  many  of  the  intelligent,  and 
upright  members  of  parliament  were  purposely  absent  on  the 
occasion.  This  we  know  to  have  been  the  case  with  some,  in- 
cluding the  virtuous  De  Thou.  But  unless  the  records  of  the 
court  itself  are  falsified,  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
six  persons  took  part  in  the  proceedings.  Some  signed  the 
declaration  with  alacrity.  One  judge — and  the  same  was  true 
of  more  than  one,  if  we  take  the  words  of  the  register  literally 
— opened  a  vein  of  his  arm,  and  wrote  his  name  in  his  own 
blood.2 

It  did  not  take  long  for  the  anti-monarchical  government  to 
acquire  form  and  consistency.  The  Duke  of  Mayenne,  having 
escaped  the  clutches  of  those  sent  to  arrest  him,  and  having 
reached  Paris  in  safety,  assumed  supreme  command,  with  the 

1  "  Extrait  des  registres  du  parlement,"  January  30, 1589,  in  Memoiresde  la 
Ligue,  iii.  189-191,  and  in  Cimber  et  Danjou,  Archives  curieuses,  xii.  327- 
329. 

2  De  Thou,  vii.  378,  gives  a  wretch  by  the  name  of  Baston  the  doubtful 
honor  of  this  act;  but  the  parliament  records  imply  that  others  shared  it 
with  him  :  "A  este  leue  la  presente  Declaration  en  forme  de  serment,  pour 
l'entretenement  de  Tunion  qui  fut  hier  arrestee,  laquelle  tous  lesdits  Seigneurs 
ont  juree  sur  le  tableau,  et  signee  aucuns  de  leur  sang."  The  number  of  per- 
sons present  I  have  stated  as  it  is  given  in  Cimber  et  Danjou,  "  six-vingt  six," 
but  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue  make  it  three  hundred  and  twenty-six. 

Vol.  II.—. 


130     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.      Ch.  X. 

title  of  "  Lieutenant- General  of  the  Royal  Estate."  His  hands 
were  upheld  by  a  Council  of  Forty,  composed  of  three  bishops, 
The  Duke  of  five  curates,  seven  gentlemen,  and  various  presidents 
madeHeuten-  and  councillors  of  parliament  and  burgesses  of  Paris,1 
ant-generai.  whoge  0I1iy  regret  seems  to  have  been  that  the  "  Six- 
teen "  declined  to  resign  in  their  favor  an  authority  grown 
doubly  dear  with  the  lapse  of  time.2 

The  royal  cause,  in  truth,  appeared  to  be  well  nigh  hopeless. 
From  all  quarters  came  the  news  that  cities,  and  even  whole 
Accessions  to  districts,  had  gone  over  to  the  League.  In  the  north, 
the  League.  guc]1  piaces  ag  Amiens,  Abbeville,  and  Senlis  ;  on 
the  lower  Seine,  Rouen  ;  in  the  northeast,  Laon  ;  in  the  central 
parts  of  France,  Orleans,  Melun,  Sens,  Mans,  Chartres,  and 
Bourges  ;  Rennes,  with  a  great  part  of  Brittany  ;  most  of  the 
province  of  Auvergne  ;  and  toward  the  southeast  the  great 
city  of  Lyons — such  were  some  of  the  conquests  of  the  League.3 

The  incidents  of  the  revolt  at  Toulouse  were  invested  with  an 
aspect  of  barbarity  peculiarly  in  keeping  with  the  reputation  of 
the  populace  of  that  place  as  the  most  blood-thirsty  in  France. 
The  two  principal  victims  on  the  present  occasion  were  the 
first  president  of  parliament  and  the  advocate-general  of  the 
Murder  of  same  body.  Never  did  popular  fury  show  itself  more 
president       blind  and  unthinking.     President  Jean  Estienne  Du- 

Duranti  at  & 

Toulouse.  ranti,  a  man  reputed  to  be  of  sterling  integrity  of 
character  and  an  impartial  judge,  was  not  only  far  removed 
from  all  suspicion  of  so-called  heretical  proclivities,  but  a  de- 
termined enemy  of  Protestantism  and  a  zealous  Roman  Cath- 
olic. A  great  admirer  of  the  monastic  orders,  he  had  been  in- 
strumental in  founding  at  Toulouse  not  less  than  two  religious 
confraternities;  of  which  the  one,  bearing  the  name  of  the 
Confraternity  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  had  for  its  object  the  mar- 
riage of  portionless  girls,  while  the  other,  known  as  the  Con- 
fraternity of  Pity,  devoted  its  energies  to  the  relief  of  poor 
prisoners.     It  was  he  that  had  introduced  the  Jesuits  into  the 


1  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  687  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  385. 

2  Journal  d'un  cure  ligueur  (Jehan  de  la  Fosse).  223. 

3  The  complete  list  included  many  other  towns.     See  Davila,  380. 


1589.  OPEN   REBELLION   OF   THE  LEAGUE.  131 

city  ;  it  was  lie  that  had  brought  thither  members  of  the  Capu- 
chin Order  from  Italy,  and  that  had  even  braved  the  opposition 
of  many  of  his  associates  by  carrying  through  the  plan  of  in- 
stituting an  association  of  the  despised  Penitents  at  Toulouse. 
Not  only  so,  but  he  had  warmly  advocated  the  persecution  of 
the  Huguenots,  and  had  shown  little  or  no  disgust  at  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  bloody  matins  of  Paris.  Tie  even  took  an  active 
part  in  extending  the  massacre  that  began  on  St.  Bartholomew's 
Day  to  the  city  of  Toulouse.  Soon  after  the  tidings  came  of 
the  murderous  work  done  at  the  capital,  the  unfortunate  Prot- 
estants of  Toulouse  wTere  thrown  into  the  various  convents  and 
jails  of  the  city.  A  few  weeks  later  they  were  transferred  to 
the  conciergerie,  or  prison,  attached  to  the  parliament  house. 
Some  days  passed,  and  the  command  was  brought  by  Delpeuch 
and  Madron,  special  messengers  from  Paris,  that  if  the  massa- 
cre had  not  yet  been  consummated,  it  should  at  once  be  put  into 
execution.  The  judges  of  parliament  were  convened  to  delib- 
erate with  the  "  capitouls  "  of  the  city  respecting  the  course 
which  was  to  be  pursued.  The  majority  of  the  members  pres- 
ent drew  back  in  horror  from  the  proposal  to  perpetrate  so  foul 
a  crime  as  that  to  which  they  were  invited.  Some  were  out- 
spoken in  favor  of  clemency.  Others,  more  timid,  shrugged 
their  shoulders  and  kept  their  eyes  upon  the  ground.  But 
Duranti  knew  no  compunction.  Rising,  he  exclaimed  to  his 
more  tolerant  colleagues :  "  You  will  do  what  you  please,  and 
say  "what  may  seem  good  to  you.  As  for  myself,  I  am  going  to 
execute,  in  the  king's  name,  what  my  charge  and  my  duty  re- 
quire of  me.1'  Abruptly  leaving  the  company,  he  at  once  issued 
the  necessary  orders.  How  well  he  was  obeyed  appeared  on 
the  morrow,  when  two  unworthy  scholars  of  the  university, 
with  a  following  of  seven  or  eight  wretches  of  the  like  sangui- 
nary type,  forced  their  way  into  the  conciergerie,  armed  with 
cutlasses  and  axes.  Summoned  one  by  one  into  their  presence, 
the  prisoners  were  successively  butchered  at  the  foot  of  the 
stairs,  to  the  number  of  three  hundred  or  more.1     Surely  Du- 

1  Memoires  de  Jacques  Gaches  sur  les  guerres  de  religion  a  Castres  et  dans 
le  Languedoc,  1555-1610,  118-120.     See  Rise  of  the  Huguenots,  ii.  521,  522. 


132     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  X. 

ranti  was  a  follower  of  Mother  Holy  Church  whose  past  exploits 
might  well  have  earned  for  him  immunity  from  suspicion  of 
disloyalty  to  her  creed,  or  to  its  supporters. 

Yet  the  very  moment  that  Duranti  displayed  his  intention  to 
frustrate,  if  possible,  the  attempts  made  to  bring  the  city  into 
revolt  against  the  king's  authority,  from  an  idol  of  the  people 
he  became  an  object  of  hatred.  The  mob  pursued  him  as  he 
returned  from  the  session  of  parliament,  and  riddled  his  carriage 
with  thrusts  of  their  swords.  Thrown  into  prison  by  his  ene- 
mies, he  was  afterward  sought  for  in  the  Dominican  convent 
which  served  as  his  place  of  imprisonment,  and  mercilessly 
slain.  One  of  the  very  guards  to  whose  keeping  he  had  been 
trusted  brought  him  out  to  the  mob  with  only  too  much  will- 
ingness, and  turned  him  over  to  their  hands  with  the  impious 
exclamation,  "  Behold  the  man  !  "  Xot  content  with  simply 
killing  him,  the  mob  dragged  him  ignominiously  through  the 
streets;  then,  finding  no  gallows  at  hand  from  which  he  might 
be  hung,  placed  the  corpse  upon  its  feet  and  tied  it  to  an  iron 
gate  immediately  in  front  of  a  portrait  of  the  king  contemptu- 
ously dangling  from  a  stake.  "  Thou  hast  so  loved  thy  king ; 
now  enjoy  the  sight  of  him  at  thine  ease,  and  die  with  him  n — 
were  the  words  of  the  inscription,  more  honorable  than  its 
authors  intended,  with  which  the  remains  of  the  loyal  first  presi- 
dent were  left  for  a  whole  day  exposed  to  the  gaze  of  men.1 

Meantime,  if  the  royal   authority   was   maintained   in   some 

1  "  Advertissement  particulier  et  veritable  de  tout  ce  qui  s'est  passe  en  la 
ville  de  Tholose,  depuis  le  massacre  et  assassinat  comrois  en  la  personn 
Princes  Catholiques,  touchant  l'einprisonment  et  mort  du  premier  President  et 
Advocat  du  Roy  d'icelle,  etc.,"  Paris,  1589.     Reprinted  in  Cimber  et  Danjou, 
Archives  curieuses,  xii.  283-302  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  ibook  95),  412-417  ;  Agrippa 
d'Aubigne,  iii.   166.     The   Duke  of  Xevers,  in  his  Trait''    des  causes  • 
raisons  de  la  prise  des  armes,  first  printed  in  1590,  eulogizes  Duranti  u 
plus  homme  de  bien  de  justice  qui  iut  de  nostre  age/'  and  says  of  him  and  bis 
fellow-victim  :    "lis  avoient  tous  deux  tout  le  temps  de  leur  vie  este  fortcon- 
traires  aux  Huguenots,    et  courru  de  grandes  fortunes  pour  telle  occasion." 
Memoires  de  Nevers,  ii.  50.     See,  also,  Menioires  de  Jacques  Gaches.  378 
who  adds  this  touch  to  the  barbarous  treatment  received  by  President  Duranti's 
corpse:    uLes  charretiers,    en  passant,  se  destournoint  pour  luy  alter  bailler 
des  coups  de  fouet  avec  injures  et  execrations,  au  grand  estonnement  des  gens 
de  bien." 


1589.  OPEN   REBELLION   OF  THE   LEAGUE.  133 

important  cities,  such,  for  example,  as  Bordeaux,  it  was  owing 
to  the  fidelity  and  decision  of  men  like  Marshal  Matignon, 
much  rather  than  to  any  manly  action  on  the  part  of  Henry  of 
Valois  himself  that  was  fitted  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  his 
adherents.  On  the  contrary,  his  feebleness  was  such  as  to  dis- 
gust even  those  who  would  have  preferred,  perhaps,  to  remain 
in  his  service.  Marshal  Retz,  feigning  illness,  deserted  the 
Desertion  of  court  under  pretext  of  going  for  the  benefit  of  his 
z  health  to  the  Baths  of  Lucca.     The  Duke  of  Mer- 


and  the  Duke 
of  Mercosur. 


cceur,  the  king's  own  brother-in-law — they  had  both 
married  daughters  of  the  same  Count  of  Vaudemont-Lorraine 
— with  signal  ingratitude,  allowed  himself  to  be  elected  by  an 
ecclesiastical  assembly  of  Brittany,  a  province  of  which  he  was 
governor  by  royal  appointment,  to  the  novel  office  of  Protector 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.1 

The  first  aim  of  Henry  himself  was  to  demonstrate  that  he 
was  a  good  Catholic,  and  that  no  latent  spark  of  pity  or  love 

for  Protestantism  lurked  in  his  breast.     On  the  last 

Henry  re*en~ 

actstheEdict  day  of  the  year  1588,  just  a  week  after  the  execution 
of  the  Cardinal  of  Guise,  he  sent  to  all  the  parlia- 
ments of  the  kingdom  a  declaration  forgiving  all  past  contra- 
ventions of  the  Edict  of  Union  of  the  preceding  July,  but  re- 
affirming his  own  purpose  to  enforce  that  edict  as  a  fundamental 
law  of  the  realm.  "  We  have  from  all  time,"  said  Henry, 
"  and  especially  since  our  edict  of  the  month  of  July  last,  en- 
deavored, by  every  means  in  our  power,  to  unite  all  our  good 
Catholic  subjects  in  concord  and  good  intelligence  under  our 
authority  ;  in  order,  from  that  union  and  the  strength  thence 
derived,  to  secure  the  fruit  to  which  we  have  always  aspired 
and  tended,  that  is  to  say,  to  purge  this  kingdom  of  ours  from 
heresies,  and  fully  to  re-establish  our  holy  faith  and 
many  prison-  the  Catholic,  Apostolic,  and  Roman  religion."  ;  The 
re-enactment  of  the  Edict  of  Union  at  such  a  junc- 
ture was  puerile  enough,  and  a  manifest  sign  of  weakness  ;  but 
the  release  of  many  of  the  most  important  personages  whom 


1  De  Thou,  vii.  383,  384;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  164. 

2  Declaration  du  Roy  (December  31 ,  1588),  Mf  moires  de  la  Ligue,  iii.  181-184. 


134     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.      Cn.  X. 

the  king  had  arrested  at  the  time  of  the  assassination  of  Guise 
and  his  brother  was  equally  childish,  and  still  more  likely 
to  expose  the  King  of  France  to  contempt.  True,  the  per- 
sons upon  whom  this  unexpected  mercy  was  lavished  prom- 
ised to  abstain  from  all  acts  of  hostility  toward  his  majesty  ; 
but  it  will  be  readily  understood  how  little  value  attached  to 
such  engagements,  when  there  were  ecclesiastics  ready  to  pro- 
nounce them  void  because  exacted  under  moral  or  physical 
compulsion.1 

Amid  the  frenzy  which  had  taken  possession  of  men's  mind.-. 
and  which  moved  the  preachers  of  the  kingdom  to  the  utter- 
ance of  the  most  violent  denunciations  of  the  monarch  and  of 
cardinal  mo-  all  that  continued  to  adhere  to  him,  one  ecclesiastic  of 
ate^romains68  high  rank  preserved  his  self-possession  and  watched 
calmly  the  drift  of  the  present  movement.  Cardi- 
nal Morosini,  the  papal  legate,  was  at  Blois  when  the  duke 
and  his  brother  were  murdered.  lie  remained  with  the  king 
even  when  the  Spanish  ambassador  and  others  saw  fit  to  vindi- 
cate their  attachment  to  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  by  with- 
drawing from  Henry,  as  from  an  accursed  and  contaminate  per- 
son. In  the  minds  of  many  devotees  his  actions  occasioned 
surprise  and  disgust.  But  the  prelate  was  sagacious  and  pru- 
dent. Left  to  himself,  the  king  might  be  compelled  to  make 
common  cause  with  the  Huguenots.  The  legate  could  hope  at 
least  to  delay,  and  possibly  to  avert,  so  deplorable  a  result. 
Receiving  the  unexpected  intelligence  of  the  duke's  murder. 
Morosini  at  once  exerted  himself  to  save  the  life  of  his  brother, 
the  cardinal.  Foiled  in  this,  he  directed  his  energies  to  dis- 
suade his  majesty  from  entering  the  sacred  precincts  of  the 
Church,  and  succeeded  in  inducing  him  to  send  to  Rome  to  ob- 
tain the  papal  absolution.  Better  than  all,  he  prevented  Henry 
of  Yalois  from  coming  to  an  agreement  with  the  heretical  King 
of  Navarre,  and  from  forming  an  alliance  that  might  have 
widened  until  it  should  embrace  not  onlv  these  two  rulers,  but 


1  ll  Car  depuis  que  les  predicateurs  et  les  coufesseurs  avoientgute  l'esprit  da 
peuple,"  remarks  De  Thou  (vii.  353),  "onne  se  faisoit  plus  an  scrapale  de 
violer,  sous  pretexts  de  religion,  les  sermens  les  plus  soleniiiels." 


L589.  OPEN   REBELLION  OF  THE   LEAGUE.  135 

the  Protestant  princes  of  the  German  Empire  and  Queen  Eliz- 
abeth of  England.  By  Cardinal  Morosini's  self-control  and 
patience  the  court  of  Rome  gained  a  substantial  advantage, 
even  if  its  astute  legate  exposed  himself  to  some  obloquy.  Of 
what  consequence  was  it  that  he  was  accused  of  acting  from 
fear  where  boldness  was  called  for  ?  To  have  placed  Henry  of 
Yalois  under  an  interdict  would  have  driven  to  desperation  a 
king  already  standing  on  the  verge  of  a  precipice.  The  drug 
too  hastily  administered  as  a  medicine,  to  use  the  legate's  own 
figure,  would  have  been  likely  to  prove  a  poison  and  carry  off 
the  patient.1 

However,  the  king  in  his  isolation  could  not  hope  to  main- 
tain himself  long  without  Protestant  aid.     The  Sorbonne  had 
declared   his  Roman  Catholic    subjects  absolved  of 

Henrv  tardily  .  _  .  _   _,       _      ,  i  r    n    r 

tnms' to  Ger-    their  oaths  or  allegiance,  and  had  given  them  lull  iree- 

manv  and  .  .  ,   .  ,      ,  ,   . 

Switzerland  doui  to  levy  war  against  him  ;  and  these  subjects,  in- 
stigated by  preachers  who  from  the  pulpit  applied  to 
him  such  names  as  tyrant,  murderer,  perjurer,  and  atheist,  were 
forsaking  him  almost  in  a  body.  The  Huguenots,  on  the  con- 
trary, had  shown  no  signs  of  disloyalty.  Persecuted,  the  vic- 
tims of  a  barbarous  legislation  that  denied  them  the  common 
rights  of  citizens,  compelled  to  stand  armed  to  repel  the  assaults 
of  the  enemies  of  their  lives  and  the  plunderers  of  their  posses- 
sions, they  nevertheless  waited  only  for  the  word  that  should 
summon  them  to  the  king's  side.  Still  that  word  came  not 
yet,  though  everything  pointed  to  the  near  approach  of  the 
time  when  it  must  be  spoken.  Marshal  Retz  and  other  coun- 
sellors of  doubtful  loyalty  had  no  great  difficulty  in  persuading 
Henry  to  reject  the  propositions  of  M.  de  Sancy,  who  had  acted 
as  French  ambassador  to  Switzerland,  and  who,  early  in  the 
year,  represented  to  his  majesty  the  great  advantage  to  be  de- 
rived from  an  alliance  such  as  could  at  this  time  be  concluded 
writh  the  four  great  Protestant  cantons  of  Berne,  Zurich,  Basle, 

1  "  Ed  io  potrei  rispondere  che  l'accelerare  questa  niedicina  era  un  conver- 
tirla  in  veleno."  The  exculpatory  letter  of  Giovanni  Francesco  Morosini, 
written  to  an  unknown  correspondent,  is  published  in  the  Negociations  avec 
la  Toscane,  iv.  868-871,  from  the  Medicean  Archives.  It  is  here  dated  Janu- 
ary, 1589.     See  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  154,  for  a  different  representation. 


136      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  X. 

and  Schaffhausen.1  But  a  few  weeks  later,  when  the  prospect 
became  more  gloomy,  when  the  king  found  himself  compelled 
to  issue  fresh  edicts  against  the  insurgents,  and  to  send  out  his 
summons  to  every  part  of  the  kingdom,  commanding,  in  old 
feudal  fashion,  all  his  principal  noblemen  and  gentlemen  by 
name  to  come  to  him,  before  the  twelfth  of  March,  at  the  head 
of  their  men-at-arms  5 — Henry  perceived  his  mistake,  and  de- 
spatched Sancy  to  Switzerland  and  Germany  to  carry  out  the 
plan  he  had  previously  rejected.  The  prodigal  and  impecuni- 
ous monarch  could  furnish  the  messenger  with  no  money,  and 
he  wisely  left  all  the  details  of  the  negotiation  to  the  discretion 
of  one  whom  experience  in  former  enterprises  abundantly  quali- 
fied for  the  responsible  trust.  Sancy's  success  more  than  real- 
ized Henry's  anticipations.3 

Once  more  restored  to  health,  Henry  of  Kavarre  had  again 
taken  the  field,  and,  full  of  his  accustomed  energy,  was  resolved 
Henry  of  Na-  to  show  mankind  that  he  had  no  intention  of  re- 
vancLTto  the  maining  a  passive  spectator  of  the  conflict  waged  by 
Loire"  the  League  against  the  crown  of  France.     With  his 

recent  gains  of  the  cities  of  Niort  and  St.  Maixent,  he  felt 
himself  strong  enough  to  make  an  advance  toward  the  river 
Loire.  At  his  approach,  towns  of  great  importance  made  haste 
to  open  their  gates  and  offer  their  service — Loudun.  L'Isle  Bou- 
chard on  the  Vienne,  Chatellerault  farther  up  the  same  river, 
Mirebeau,  and  Yivonne  above  Poitiers  on  the  Gain  :  ail  gladly 
admitted  the  Huguenot  prince,  whose  clemency  was  not 
signally  displayed  than  was  his  courage  and  determination. 
For,  at  a  time  when  the  adherents  of  the  League,  pretending 

1  De  Thou,  vii.  352. 

2  See  the  documents,  "Declaration  du  roy  sur  l'attentat.  felonnie  et  re- 
bellion du  Due  de  Mayenne,  Due  et  chevalier  d'Aumale  et  ceux  qui  lea  se  - 
teront,"  dated  February,  1589,  Meinoires  de  la  Ligue.  iii.  215-224;  "  Decla- 
tion  du  roy  sur  l'attentat,  felonnie  et  rebellion  des  villes  de  Paris.  Orleans. 
Amiens,  et  Abbeville,  et  autres  leurs  adherens,"  ibid.,  iii.  224-228  ;  "Lettres 
patentes  du  roy  sur  le  mandement  de  sa  gendarmerie,"  dated  February  6, 
1589,  ibid.,  iii.  231,  etc.  The  latter  was  addressed  to  one  hundred  and  two 
noblemen  whose  names  are  given. 

3  De  Thou,  vii.  373.     Sancy  left  Blois  about  the  beginning  of  February, 
and  reached  Geneva  on  the  fourteenth  of  the  same  month. 


1589.  OPEN  REBELLION   OF   THE  LEAGUE.  137 

to  act  in  the  name  of  religion,  did  not  hesitate  to  indulge  in 
indiscriminate  murder  and  pillage  and  in  the  foulest  of  out- 
rages, Henry  of  Navarre  not  only  threw  a  shield  about  the  lives 
and  honor  of  the  conquered,  but  freely  granted  them  the  undis- 
turbed exercise  of  their  religion.  He  simply  stipulated  that 
the  Huguenot  inhabitants  who  had  been  expelled,  or  deprived 
of  their  right  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of 
their  conscience,  should  be  granted  the  unimpeded  enjoyment  of 
their  civil  and  religious  privileges.  Next,  crossing  the  boun- 
dary line  separating  Poitou  from  Berry,  the  central  province  of 
France,  by  one  of  those  sudden  movements,  executed  with  a 
small  body  of  horse  and  foot,  by  means  of  which  he  was  wont 
to  gain  most  of  his  signal  advantages,  the  King  of  Navarre 
made  himself  master  of,  Argenton,  an  important  point  in  the 
midst  of  a  hostile  district.  Thence  returning  to  Chatellerault, 
he  gave  to  the  world  another  of  those  remarkable  papers  whose 
ability  may  be  said  to  have  accomplished  for  the  cause  of  the 
valiant  prince  almost  as  much  as  the  skill  with  which  he  wielded 
the  sword. 

The  appeal  of  Henry  of  Navarre  on  this  occasion  to  the  three 
orders  of  the  kingdom  was  a  plea  for  the  immediate  restora- 
tion of  peace  as  the  sole  remedy  for  the  maladies  of 

Navarre's  ap-     _,  tt       i       i  -i      i  -i 

peal  to  the       Jb  ranee.     He  deplored  the  unhappy  circumstance  that 

three  orders.      .  .  r  ,  rr/.   .  . 

he  who  was  in  reality  the  lover  of  his  country's  pros- 
perity should  serve  to  the  wicked  as  a  pretext,  should  be  re- 
garded by  the  ignorant  as  the  cause,  and  should  be,  in  his  own 
eyes,  the  occasion  of  the  woes  at  present  afflicting  his  native 
land.  He  expressed  his  regret  that  it  had  not  seemed  good  to 
the  king,  and  to  those  whom  he  addressed,  to  invite  him  to  the 
late  assembly  of  Blois.  His  suggestions  might  have  proved 
beneficial ;  for  there  is  no  physician  so  good  as  the  one  that 
loves  the  patient.  He  called  attention  to  the  utter  futility  of 
all  the  efforts  made  for  his  overthow. 

"I  should  play  the  braggart  soldier,"  said  he,  "  were  I  to  tell 
you,  one  by  one,  what  armies  have  been  sent  against  me  these 
past  four  years.  You  would  think  that  I  wished  to  recount  my 
deeds  of  prowess.  That  is  not  my  intention.  Would  God 
that  I  had  never  been  a  captain,  since  my  apprenticeship  must 


13S      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  X. 

be  made  at  such  an  expense  !  It  would  be  a  much  shorter  task 
to  inquire  of  you  what  leaders  France  has  still  remaining,  after 
those  that  have  marched  against  me.  In  four  years  I  have 
seen  ten  armies,  teu  royal  lieutenants,  having  behind  them  the 
forces  and  the  support  of  the  foremost  kingdom  of  Christen- 
dom. You  think  that  this  elates  me  \  Far  from  it.  I  will 
tell  you,  for  the  purpose  of  removing  this  impression,  that  of 
these  ten  armies  I  have,  in  point  of  fact,  had  to  do  with  only 
one,  which  I  fought  and  defeated.  In  that  single  one  God  was 
pleased  specially  to  make  use  of  me  as  an  instrument  for  its  ruin. 
But  in  the  case  of  all  the  others  I  had  scarcely  any  trouble  ;  they 
almost  melted  away  before  reaching  me,  and  I  heard  of  their 
dissipation  as  soon  as  I  learned  their  approach.  The  angel  of 
God,  the  rod  of  God,  took  away  from  them  the  means  of  injur- 
ing me.  Not  unto  me  belongs  the  glory  of  this;  I  hardly  con- 
tributed anything  of  my  own  to  the  achievement  of  the  result." 

And  of  the  outcome,  what  could  be  said  '.  The  lives  of 
countless  men  had  been  lost,  a  mine  of  gold  had  been  squan- 
dered, the  people  of  France  had  been  ruined ;  but  the  objects 
of  the  war  were  no  nearer  their  accomplishment. 

Turning  next  to  the  proposition,  which  had  so  generally  been 
inserted  in  the  petitions  presented  at  Blois,  that  a  kingdom 
should  have  but  one  religion,  and  that  the  foundation  of  a 
state  is  piety,  which  cannot  exist  everywhere  if  God  be  wor- 
shipped in  diverse  ways,  Henry  declared  his  adherence  t<» 
that  view.  "  It  is  so,"  said  he  ;  "  but  to  my  great  regret  I  see 
an  abundance  of  people  that  bewail  the  fact,  and  only  a  few 
who  are  willing  to  apply  the  remedy.  Now,  I  have  always 
been  open  to  conviction,  and  I  am  so  still.  Let  the 
wmseif  open    methods  that  are  customarv  in  such  cases  be  taken. 

to  conviction.       „       ,  *L.  .  . 

It  there  are  any  extraordinary  ones,  let  them  be 
searched  out.  Both  I  myself  and  the  members  of  the  lie- 
formed  religion  will  always  submit  to  the  decisions  that  may 
be  adopted  by  a  free  council.  That  is  the  true  path.  It  is  the 
only  one  that  has  been  followed  in  all  time.  But  to  believe 
that  this  can  be  obtained  from  us  by  blows  of  the  sword  1  es- 
teem before  God  to  be  an  impossibility.  And,  in  point  of  fact. 
the  event  abundantly  proves  that  it  is  so.     .     .     .     I  have  often 


1589.  OPEN   REBELLION   OF   THH    LEAGUE.  139 

been  summoned  to  change  religion  ;  but  how  ?  With  the  dag- 
ger at  my  throat !  Had  I  no  respect  for  my  conscience,  yet  re- 
spect for  my  honor  would  have  prevented  me  from  changing. 
.  .  What  would  those  persons  say  who  are  most  devoted 
to  the  Catholic  religion,  if,  after  I  had  lived  in  one  fashion  up 
to  thirty  years  of  age,1  thev  were  to  see  me  suddenly  changing 
my  religion  under  hope  of  a  kingdom?  What  would  those  say 
who  have  seen  and  experienced  my  courage,  should  I,  through 
fear,  shamefully  abandon  the  manner  in  which  I  have  served 
God  from  the  day  of  my  birth  ?  These  are  reasons  that  touch 
worldly  honor.  But,  at  bottom,  what  a  conscience  should  I 
have !  To  have  been  nurtured,  instructed,  and  brought  up  in 
one  profession  of  faith,  and  then,  without  hearing  and  without 
speaking,  all  of  a  sudden,  to  throw  myself  on  the  other  side  ! 
Xu,  gentlemen,  it  will  never  be  the  King  of  Kavarre  that 
will  so  act,  were  there  thirty  crowns  to  be  gained.  Far  be  it 
from  him  to  conceive  a  desire  for  such  a  thing  through  hope  of 
a  single  crown.  Instruct  me  ;  I  am  not  opinionated.  Take  the 
road  of  instruction  ;  you  will  derive  infinite  profit  therefrom. 
For  if  you  show  me  another  truth  than  that  which  I  believe,  I 
will  yield  to  it.  I  will  do  more ;  for  I  am  persuaded  that  I 
shall  leave  no  one  of  my  party  who  will  not  submit  to  it  with  me." 

Xext  Henry  of  Kavarre  repelled  the  suspicion,  which  was 
possibly  entertained  by  some,  that,  unless  converted  to  Roman 
Catholicism,  he  might  one  day  undertake  to  use  constraint  to- 
ward them.  His  course,  particularly  in  respect  to  the  cities  that 
had  recently  submitted  to  him,  proved  the  contrary.  More- 
over, there  was  no  probability  that  a  handful  of  persons  of  his 
religion  would  be  able  to  constrain  an  infinite  number  of  Catho- 
lics to  a  thing  to  which  that  infinite  number  had  not  been  able 
to  constrain  this  handful. 

Again  the  Huguenot  prince  returned  to  his  plea  for  peace,  and 
entreated  all  three  orders — and  not  least  of  these  the  clergy — to 
exert  themselves  for  its  recovery,  and  to  esteem  as  enemies  those, 
and  only  those,  who  should  stand  in  the  way  of  obtaining  it.  As 
for  himself,  gladly  as  he  would  welcome  a  summons  from  the 


More  accurately  speaking,  Henry  of  Navarre  was  in  his  thirty-sixth  year. 


1  40      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  X. 

Icing  to  come  to  his  help,  he  declared  his  purpose  from  this  time 
forth  to  apply  himself  to  the  restoration  of  the  royal  authority 
in  all  places  where  he  might  have  the  ability.  "  To  this  end," 
said  he,  "  I  take  under  my  protection  and  safeguard  all  those, 
of  whatsoever  quality,  religion,  or  condition  they  may 
patriots  under  be,  whether  of  the  nobles  of  the  cities  or  of  the  peo- 

his  protection.  ,  i      -n  •  •   i  •         i   •  i  i       • 

pie,  who  shall  unite  with  me  m  this  good  resolution. 
And  although,  more  than  anybody  else,  I  regret  to  see  the  dif- 
ferences in  religion,  and,  more  than  anybody  else,  I  desire  to 
heal  them,  yet  clearly  recognizing  that  it  is  from  God  alone  and 
not  from  arms  and  violence  that  the  cure  must  be  expected,  I 
protest  before  Him — and  to  this  protestation  I  pledge  my  faith 
and  honor,  which,  by  His  grace,  I  have  until  now  kept  untar- 
nished— that,  just  as  I  have  been  unable  to  suffer  my  own  con- 
science to  be  constrained,  so  also  I  shall  not  suffer  or  ever  per- 
mit the  Catholics  to  be  constrained  in  their  conscience  or  in  the 
free  exercise  of  their  religion.  Furthermore,  I  declare  that  in 
the  cities  that  shall  unite  with  me  in  this  determination,  and 
shall  place  themselves  under  the  obedience  of  my  lord  the  king, 
and  of  myself,  I  shall  permit  no  innovation  either  in  government 
or  in  the  church,  unless  in  so  far  as  may  concern  the  liberty  of 
each  individual  person.  Again,  I  take  both  the  persons  and  the 
property  of  the  Catholics,  and  even  of  the  ecclesiastics,  under  my 
protection  and  safeguard.  For  I  have  long  since  learned  that 
the  true  and  only  means  of  uniting  nations  in  the  service  of 
God,  and  of  establishing  piety  in  a  state,  is  gentleness,  peace, 
and  good  examples ;  not  war  nor  disorders,  whence  are  born 
into  the  world  all  forms  of  vice  and  wickedness." 

So  closed  a  memorable  appeal  to  the  candid  judgment  and 
patriotism  of  all  true  Frenchmen — an  appeal  which,  although 
in  its  form  and  impressive  eloquence  betraying  the  masterly  in- 
tellect and  practised  pen  of  Duplessis  Mornay,  yet  unmistakably 
reflected  the  true  sentiments  of  the  Huguenot  prince  by  whose 
inspiration  he  wrote.1     Elevated  in  tone,  full  of  considerations 


1  The  text  of  the  document,  dated  Chatellerault,  March  4,  1589,  is  given  in 
full  in  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iii.  244-258,  and  in  the  Memoires  de  Dupless  is 
Mornay,  iv.  322-340. 


UNION   OF  THE  TWO   KINGS.  Ill 

addressing  themselves  to  the  highest  and  noblest  of  human 
motives,  and  exhibiting  a  thorough  grasp  of  the  situation  of  the 
wretched  country,  so  long  a  prey  to  civil  dissension,  the  paper 
nevertheless  held  forth  a  hope,  as  its  predecessors  had  done,  of 
a  possible  reconciliation  of  religious  parties  by  the  conversion  of 

Henry  of  Navarre  to  Roman  Catholicism.  Still  the 
a  conversion    conversion  to  which  it  pointed  was  as  yet  sketched 

only  as  a  change  based  upon  rational  instruction,  in 
connection  with  or  consequent  upon  a  free  council — a  conver- 
sion so  genuine  as  to  involve  the  conversion  of  great  numbers, 
if  not  of  all  the  Huguenot  followers  of  the  prince.  Into  the 
secret  thoughts  and  intentions  of  men  it  is  not  permitted  us  to 
look  with  clear  vision.  All  that  we  can  hope  to  attain  in  the 
search  is  a  probable  approximation  to  truth.  Whether  at  this 
time  Henry  of  Navarre  contemplated  a  change  of  his  religion, 
as  a  political  necessity  likely  to  confront  him  in  the  near  future, 
may  be  doubted.  Henry  of  Yalois  still  lived,  with  constitution 
enfeebled,  it  is  true,  by  excesses,  and  little  likely  to  leave  be- 
hind him  a  son  to  inherit  the  crown,  but  yet  a  young  man, 
scarcely  twenty-seven  months  the  senior  of  his  cousin  of  Navarre, 
and  lacking  more  than  two  years  of  being  forty  years  of  age. 
Under  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  while  the  King  of  Na- 
varre may  very  well  be  suspected  of  foreseeing  a  contingency 
in  which  he  might  be  desirous  of  finding  some  plausible  pre- 
text for  deserting  the  religion  of  the  "  handful  "  of  the  French 
people  in  favor  of  that  of  the  "  infinite  number,"  we  hesitate 
to  admit  that  the  idea  of  any  such  indecorous  apostasy  as  that 
which  was  to  take  place  four  years  later  had  as  yet  ever  en- 
tered his  brain,  or,  if  it  had  been  conceived,  was  not  dismissed 
with  some  degree  of  honest  scorn. 

"  I  cannot  believe  that  the  king  will  be  willing  to  make  use 
of  us,"  wrote  a  Huguenot,  about  the  middle  of  February  ;  "  and 
The  king  and  yet  I  see  no  other  resource  for  him  in  his  difficul- 
?aer?eyente?up-  ties."  *  Yet  it  was  only  a  month  later  when  the 
on  negotiations.  game  person  that  penned  this  sentence  was  in  the 
city  of   Tours — whither   Henry  of   Yalois   had   not   only  re- 

1  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Morlas,  February  11,  1589,  Memoires,  iv.  313. 


142      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.      Ch.  X. 

moved  his  own  residence,  but  transferred  the  loyal  portion  of 
the  Parliament  of  Paris1 — engaged  in  active  treaty  for  the 
purpose  of  effecting  a  reconciliation  between  the  monarch  and 
his  loyal  subjects  the  Huguenots.2  He  found  the  king,  despite 
his  passionate  hatred  of  Protestantism  and  his  ostentatious  de- 
votion to  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church,  not  altogether  averse 
to  an  arrangement  which  might  tend  to  rescue  him  from  his 
present  straits.  Even  now,  it  is  true,  Henry  of  Valois  could 
not  conceal  the  reluctance  with  which,  under  constraint,  he  de- 
parted from  the  traditions  of  the  past.  We  have  it  upon  the 
word  of  the  historian  De  Thou  that  the  king  still  hoped  against 
hope  that  some  tardy  accommodation  with  the  League  might 
come  in  to  free  him  from  the  distasteful  necessity  of  making 
common  cause  with  the  Huguenots.  Even  after  he  had  sol- 
emnly appended  his  signature  to  the  treaty,  of  which  I  am 
about  to  speak,  with  the  King  of  Xavarre,  in  the  presence  of 
that  monarch's  envoy,  Duplessis  Mornay,  the  Very  Christian 
King  had  the  effrontery  to  ask  for  a  delay  of  a  fortnight  in 
transmitting  the  document,  hoping  that  within  that  time  he 
might  secure  from  Ma}Tenne  either  peace  or  a  suspension  of 
arms ;  in  which  case  he  purposed  to  push  hostilities  against  the 
Protestants  more  vigorously  than  ever.3 

The  new  compact  established  a  truce  between  the  Kings  of 

France  and  of  Navarre  for  the  term  of  a  year  dating  from  the 

third  day  of  April,  and  included  in  its  provisions  not 

The  truce  be-  __i 

tweenthetwo  only  all  the  Huguenots  and  other  loyal  subjects  of 
the  crown,  but,  as  a  particular  mark  of  favor  to  the 
pope,  the  inhabitants  of  Avignon  and  the  Comtat  Tenaissin. 
The  King  of  Navarre  engaged  for  himself  and  his  followers  to 
carry  on  no  military  enterprise  without  the  command  or  consent 
of  the  King  of  France,  and  especially  to  make  no  changes,  so 
far  as  the  Eoman  Catholic  religion  and  its  adherents  were  con- 

1  "Edit  du  Roy,  par  lequel  sa  Cour  de  Parlement,  qui  souloit  seoir  a  Paris, 
est  transferee  a  Tours,  et  aussi  sa  Chambre  de  Comptes,"  Blois,  February, 
1589,  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iii.  239-241. 

2  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Henry  of  Navarre,  Blois,  March,  1589,  Memoires, 
iv.  343-346. 

3  De  Thou,  vii.  (book  95)  430,  431. 


1589.  UNION   OF   THE   TWO   KINGS.  143 

cerned,  in  any  cities  that  might  fall  into  his  hands  during  the 
course  of  the  war.  The  King  of  France  in  turn  pledged  himself 
that  the  Protestants  should  have  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  all 
their  possessions.1  Such  were  the  points  given  to  the  world  in 
the  formal  publications  of  the  two  monarchs.  The  agreement 
as  signed,  however,  stipulated  further  that  the  King  of  Xavarre 
should  receive  a  city  and  bridge  on  the  river  Loire,  and  that 
the  Huguenot  prince  should  cross  that  stream  and  proceed 
against  the  Duke  of  Mayenne.  While  all  cities  that  he  might 
take  were  to  be  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  King  of  France, 
it  was  provided  that  Henry  of  Navarre  should  be  permitted  to 
retain  one  place  in  every  bailiwick  and  senechaussee  as  security 
for  the  expenses  incurred  by  him.  It  was  furthermore  agreed, 
and  noted  as  a  distinct  appendix  to  the  articles  of  the  truce, 
that  Protestants  were  no  longer  to  be  proceeded  against,  but 
were  to  enjoy  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion  in  all  cities 
through  which  Navarre  and  his  army  might  pass.  Exception 
for  the  term  of  four  months  was  made  of  the  city  situated  on 
the  Loire  which  was  to  be  confided  to  his  safe-keeping.2  This 
cit}~,  according  to  the  agreement,  should  have  been  the  insignif- 
icant Ponts-de-Ce,  near  Angers  ;  but  when  the  governor  of  the 
paltry  castle  flatly  refused  to  make  the  surrender  without  re- 
ceiving in  lien  an  extravagant  recompense,  the  much  more  con- 
venient city  of  Saumur  was  substituted.  It  was  characteristic 
of  the  inflexible  rectitude  of  Duplessis  Mornay,  in  whose  care, 
as  governor,  the  city  was  now  placed,  that  for  the  stipulated 
term  he  refused  to  permit  his  own  fellow- believers  to  celebrate 
any  other  than  private  worship  within  town  or  castle.3 

1  "  Declaration  du  Roy  sur  la  trefve  accordee  par  sa  Majeste  au  Roy  de  Na- 
varre, contenant  les  causes  et  preignantes  raisons,  qui  l'ont  meu  a  ce  faire," 
Blois,  April  26,  1589,  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iii.  315-321.  Also,  the  simi- 
lar declaration  of  Henry  of  Navarre,  Saumur,  April  24,  1589,  ibid.,  iii.  321- 
324.  Both  documents  are  also  inserted  entire  in  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  207- 
212,  212-214. 

2  "  Articles  du  traicte  de  la  trefve  negotiee  par  M.  Duplessis,  de  la  part  du 
Roy  de  Navarre,  avec  le  Roy  Henry  III."  Signed  by  Henry  and  his  secretary 
Revol  Tours,  April  3,  1589.  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  iv.  351-355. 
Vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  129,  130. 

3  Vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  131.     Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  167. 


144     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  X. 

So  it  was  that  tlie  Huguenots  crossed  the  Loire  !  The  day 
was  a  memorable  one.     Four  years  before,  the  king  and  the 

majority  of  the  people  of  France  had  banded  together 
nots  cross  the  for  the  destruction  of  Protestantism.     Proscribed  by 

the  law,  the  Huguenots  found  no  refuge  save  on  the 
shores  of  the  ocean  about  La  Bochelle,  or  beyond  the  Garonne 
and  in  the  province  of  Languedoc.  The  few  adherents  of  the 
.Reformed  doctrines  in  Paris  and  scattered  throughout  Central 
and  Northern  France  lived  only  by  sufferance,  and  mostly  es- 
caped notice  by  reason  of  their  prudence  and  the  comparative 
insignificance  of  their  numbers.  It  was  long  since  Protestant 
preaching  had  been  heard  by  devout  multitudes  on  the  north- 
ern side  of  the  Loire,  and  he  would  have  been  esteemed  by  the 
Huguenots  of  Guyenne  a  rash  prophet  who  should  have  fore- 
told to  them  the  near  approach  of  the  day  when  such  a  privi- 
lege would  be  enjoyed.     An  enthusiastic  minister — the  same 

Gabriel  d' Amours  who  stood  by  Navarre  and  ini- 
d'Amours'       plored  the  aid  of  Heaven  on  the  battle-field  uf  Cou- 

tras  ' — had,  indeed,  encouraged  his  master  with  the 
prediction,  in  the  very  darkest  hour  of  the  war,  when  tidings 
came  from  Blois  of  the  decision  of  the  states  general  declaring 
the  Huguenot  prince  an  apostate  incapable  of  succeeding  to  the 
throne  of  France.  Addressing  the  despondent  king,  in  a  public 
discourse  delivered  in  the  market-house  of  Saint  Jean  d'Angely, 
he  had  exclaimed  :  "  Sire,  men  will  not  be  able  to  strip  you  of 
what  God  has  conferred  upon  you  in  virtue  of  your  birth.  Yen- 
soon  you  will  cause  us  to  preach  beyond  the  Loire,  and  will  re- 
establish the  churches  in  that  region."  But  his  words  had 
fallen  on  incredulous  ears.     It  was  not  until  still  stranger  news 


1  Among  the  strange  vicissitudes  of  his  life,  Gabriel  d'Amours.  having  had 
the  imprudence  to  visit  Paris,  in  March,  1589,  was  discovered  and  thrown  into 
the  Bastile.  It  was  generally  agreed  that  the  brave  minister  would  never 
come  out  alive  ;  but,  strange  to  say,  Bussy  le  Clerc,  who,  violent  and  blood- 
thirsty Leaguer  as  he  was,  yet  entertained  an  unaffected  admiration  for 
D'Amours'  character,  seems  to  have  taken  him  under  his  special  protection, 
and,  in  the  end,  to  have  secured  his  release  He  swore  that.  Huguenot  as  he 
was,  D'Amours  was  worth  more  than  all  the  hypocritical  presidents  and  coun- 
cillors of  parliament  put  together.     Lestoile,  i.  289. 


X5S9.  UNION   OF   THE   Twd   KINGS.  145 

came  from  the  north  that  the  King  of  Navarre  recalled  and  be- 
lieved the  bold  prediction.  "  Well,  D'Amours,"  said  he,  meet- 
ing his  chaplain  at  the  conclusion  of  another  sermon  in  the 
same  place;  "well,  D'Amours,  we  shall  preach  beyond  the 
Loire  !     The  Duke  of  Guise  is  dead !  "  ' 

And  now  the  prophecy  had  actually  come  to  pass.  Not  only 
so,  but  the  hand  of  Almighty  God  was  seen,  to  the  amazement 
of  all  beholders,  employing  the  very  monarch  that  had  driven 
forth  the  King  of  Navarre  and  his  followers  into  exile  to  bring 
The  League  th em  back  again  to  their  inheritance.  It  was  no 
at  SS&T1611*  wonder  that  thoughtful  men  of  all  shades  of  religious 
va£ftogthe  opinion,  however  much  they  might  differ  on  other 
throne.  matters,  were  equally  impressed  at  the  sight  of  so 

singular  a  coincidence  and  alike  ascribed  it  to  the  design  of  a 
higher  Being  who  presides  over  the  destinies  of  the  human 
race.  Thus  the  fair-minded  Lestoile,  curious  collector  of  all 
that  was  most  singular  and  deserving  of  preservation  for  the  ben- 
efit of  subsequent  ages,  jotted  down  in  his  invaluable  journal : 
"  The  king  who,  carried  away  by  the  times,  had  so  long  waged 
war  against  Navarre,  and  had  even  been  constrained  to  furnish 
the  League  both  men  and  means  for  waging  it,  was  he  that  led 
this  prince,  as  it  were,  by  the  hand,  in  order  afterward  to  es- 


1  This  interesting  incident  is  preserved  in  a  remarkable  letter  of  the  Hugue- 
not minister,  of  which  I  have  already  made  use,  and  to  which  I  shall  again 
have  occasion  to  refer.  "  Peu  de  jours  avant  que  feu  monsieur  de  Guise  fust 
tue  et  qu'aux  estaz  de  Bloys  on  avoit  prononce  sentence  contre  vous,  vous  con- 
solant  en  ung  presche  je  vous  dys  en  la  hasle  de  St.  Jehan  :  '  Les  hommes  ne 
vous  sauroyent  oster  ce  que  Dieu  vous  a  donne  de  nature ;  vous  nous  feres 
bien  tost  prescher  dela,  la  Loyre  et  y  redresseres  les  eglises.'  Monsieur  de 
Guyse  fut  tue  peu  de  jours  apres  et  me  dictes  en  la  hasle  apres  un  presche  de 
Mons.  de  Lacroix :  '  Eh  bien,  Damours,  nous  prescherons  dela  la  Loyre  ;  Mons. 
de  Guyse  est  mort !' "  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de  l'histoire  du  Protestantisme 
francais,  i.  281.  It  was  a  graceful  thing  in  Henry  of  Navarre  to  select  the 
minister  who  had  been  the  first  to  predict  from  the  open  pulpit  the  re-estab- 
lishment, under  his  authority,  of  the  Protestant  churches  north  of  the  Loire 
to  deliver  the  first  sermon  after  the  crossing  at  Saumur.  And  it  was  appro- 
priate in  D'Amours  himself  to  take  the  themes  of  his  discourses  on  this  occa- 
sion from  the  mighty  deliverances  of  Israel  by  the  hand  of  Joshua — "car," 
said  he,  "  vous  esties  le  Josu*:  du  Seigneur  des  armees  pour  nous  faire  passer 
le  Jordain  et  nous  mestre  en  possession  de  la  terre  de  Canaan."  Ibid.,  i.  282. 
Vol.  II.— 10 


146      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  X. 

tablish  him  in  the  heritage  which  God  had  promised  him  by  so 
many  pledges  of  His  blessings ;  and  this  by  means  altogether 
unknown  to  men,  and  more  miraculous  than  can  be  imagined. 
For  it  was  the  pope,  it  was  the  Spaniard,  it  was  the  Lorraine 
princes,  it  was  the  Savoyard,  it  was  the  League,  it  was  the  '  Six- 
teen ; '  in  short,  it  was  his  greatest  enemies  that  bore  him  on 
their  shoulders  to  a  seat  upon  the  royal  throne.  A  miracle  of 
miracles  in  truth,  yet  a  miracle  which  we  have  seen  with  our 
own  eyes  I"1  And  Davila,  a  writer  as  different  from  Lestoile 
as  Italy  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  different  from  France, 
took  the  very  same  view.  "  Truly,"  he  exclaims,  "  it  was  a 
thing  worthy  of  very  great  wonder,  and  one  of  the  secret  mys- 
teries of  God's  divine  wisdom,  that  the  King  of  Navarre,  being 
weak  and  forsaken  of  all,  reduced  into  a  narrow  corner  of  the 
kingdom,  and  for  the  most  part  in  want  of  things  necessary  for 
his  own  maintenance,  so  that  he  was  fain  to  live  more  like  a 
soldier  of  fortune  than  a  great  prince  ;  his  enemies,  by  too 
much  eagerness  in  pursuing  him,  and  by  too  ardent  a  desire  to 
see  him  utterly  ruined,  should  labor  to  plot  so  many  \va\ 
raise  so  many  wars,  to  treat  so  many  leagues,  to  make  s<>  many 
conspiracies  and  practise  so  many  arts,  from  all  which  resulting 
to  his  advantage,  his  greatness  and  exaltation  did,  as  it  were, 
miraculously  succeed.  For  there  was  no  man  versed  in  the 
affairs  of  France,  and  far  from  the  passions  of  both  parties, 
who  saw  not  clearly  that,  if  the  king  had  been  suffered  to  live 
and  rule  as  peaceably  as  he  ought  to  have  done,  the  King  of 
Navarre  would  by  little  and  little  have  been  destroyed  and 
brought  to  nothing;  for  peace  and  length  of  time  would  abso- 
lutely have  dissolved  that  little  union  which  was  among  the 
Huguenots,  and,  by  those  occasions  and  necessities  which  length 
of  time  would  have  produced,  the  obstinacy  of  the  Rochellers, 
wherein  the  sum  of  affairs  consisted,  would  finally  have  been 
overthrown  and  broken,  and  the  king,  a  most  bitter  enemy  to 
heresy,  would  in  a  manner  insensibly,  by  divers  arts,  have 
rooted  it  out  and  destroyed  it.  "Whereas,  on  the  contrary,  the 
revolution   of  the  wars  and  factions  did  not   only  foment  the 

1  Lestoile,  i.  291. 


16S9.  UNION   OF  THE   TWO   KINGS.  147 

stubbornness  of  the  Huguenots  (who  were  so  much  the  more 
hardened  to  resist  by  how  much  they  thought  they  were  wrong- 
fully persecuted),  but  also  in  the  end  made  way  for  the  King  of 
Navarre's  reconciliation  with  the  king  and  with  the  French  no- 
bility, furnished  him  with  arms  and  power,  and,  at  last,  con- 
trary to  his  own  expectation  and  the  natural  course  of  things, 
opened  him  a  passage  to  attain  unto  the  crown."  ' 

Nothing  remained,  for  the  more  perfect  exhibition  of  the 
new  union  between  Henry  of  Yalois  and  Henry  of  Navarre, 
Meeting  of  except  that  they  should  again  meet  after  their  long 
Msluu^Hlnry  separation.  Accordingly,  on  Sunday,  the  thirtieth 
of  Navarre.  Q£  ^\prj]?  tjiey  were  brought  face  to  face  under  the 
trees  of  the  park  of  Plessis  les  Tours.  Great  was  the  crowd  of 
spectators  anxious  to  behold  the  unlooked-for  scene  of  the  rec- 
onciliation of  the  king  and  his  brother-in-law.  Great  were  the 
demonstrations  of  joy  on  every  side.  For  full  a  quarter  of  an 
hour,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  chronicles  of  the  day,  did  the  two 
princes  strive  in  vain  to  cleave  the  press,  that  they  might  reach 
each  other.  For  so  long  did  deafening  shouts  fill  the  air  of 
"  Long  life  to  the  king !  Long  life  to  the  King  of  Navarre  ! 
Long  life  to  the  kings  !  "  And  when  at  last  they  came  together, 
when  they  embraced  one  another  with  effusive  affection,  when 
tears  "  as  big  as  peas "  rolled  down  Navarre's  cheeks,  when 
Henry  of  Yalois,  not  permitting  his  Huguenot  cousin  to  throw 
himself  at  his  feet,  walked  with  him  in  friendly  converse  to  the 
town — the  enthusiasm  of  all  who  saw  them  knew  no  bounds.2 
Truth  to  say,  however,  Navarre  breathed  somewhat  more  freely 
when  he  returned  to  the  quarters  of  his  troops.  He  had  re- 
ceived an  abundance  of  warnings  from  his  faithful  followers, 
and  he  was  not  himself  ignorant  of  the  French  king's  past  acts 
of  treachery.  Nothing  seemed  more  possible  than  that  the 
Yalois  might  take  a  fancy  to  send  the  heretic's  head  to  the 
Parisians — a  grateful  pledge  of  peace.3     In  proportion  as  his 


1  Davila  (book  10),  391,  392.     I  have   followed  the  somewhat  quaint  old 
English  of  the  London  translation  published  in  1678. 

2  Lestoile,  i.  291  ;  Davila,  397  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  450,  etc. 

3  Lestoile,  ubi  supra. 


148     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Cn.  X. 

own  apprehension  had  been  great,  his  expressions  of  relief  were 
hearty.  "  Monsieur  Duplessis,"  he  wrote,  in  a  note  despatched 
the  very  evening  of  the  interview,  "  the  ice  is  broken,  not  but 
that  I  received  a  great  number  of  warnings  that  if  I  went 
thither  I  was  a  dead  man.  I  have  crossed  the  water,  com- 
mending myself  to  God,  who  in  His  goodness  has  not  only  pre- 
served me,  but  caused  indications  of  extreme  joy  to  appear  upon 
the  king's  countenance,  and  made  the  people  indulge  in  un- 
paralleled applause.  They  even  cried,  *  Vivent  les  Bois  !  * — a 
thing  that  displeased  me  much."  ' 

And  now  the  outcast,  whom  the  King  of  France  had  so 
long  been  endeavoring  to  annihilate,  became  at  one  stroke  that 
monarch's  most  trusty  adviser  and  the  right  arm  of  his  strength. 
Exasperated  beyond  endurance  at  the  treachery  of  the  Duke  of 
Mercceur,  Henry  of  Valois  could  scarcely  renounce  the  idea  of 
marching  in  person  into  Brittany  to  bring  him  to  his  knees. 
But  Navarre  by  his  firmness  prevented  him  from  taking  so  sui- 
cidal a  course.  "If  the  king  go  to  Brittany,"  he  had  written, 
a  month  or  two  earlier,  to  Duplessis,  "  he  is  lost.  It  will  look 
like  a  flight  before  the  Duke  of  Mayenne.  On  the  simple  an- 
nouncement of  it  Meung,  Beaugency,  Blois,  Tours,  and  Sau- 
mur  will  revolt."  2  And  later,  hearing  that  the  project  had 
been  revived,  he  wrote  in  haste  to  the  king  himself:  "I  fell 
into  a  rage  about  it,  for  to  regain  your  realm  you  must  pass 
over  the  bridges  of  Paris.  Whoever  shall  counsel  you  to  take 
another  path  is  no  good  guide."  :  He  therefore  begged  the 
king  not  to  divide  his  forces,  but  to  gather  them  all  into  one 
great  army  against  which  the  enemy  could  not  stand. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  new  Huguenot  allies  were  able  to 
do  effective  service  for  their  late  persecutor.  Scarcely  had  a 
week  elapsed  since  the  interview  at  Plessis  les  Tours  when  the 
Duke  of  Mayenne,  who  had  advanced  with  an  army  to  a  short 


1  Henry  of  Navarre  to  Duplessis  Mornay,  dated  from  the  suburbs  of  Tours, 
April  30,  1589 ;  in  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  iv.  355,  and  Lettres  mis- 
sives de  Henri  IV.,  ii.  477. 

2  Henry  of  Navarre  to  Duplessis  Mornay,  March,  1589,  Memoires,  iv.  3-49. 

3  Same  to  Henry  III.,  June  6,  1589,  Lettres  missives,  ii.  499. 


1589.  UNION   OF  THE   TWO   KINGS.  149 

distance  north  of  the  city  of  Tours,  with  the  apparent  intention 
of  pushing  westward  to  Angers  and  the  river  Maine,  suddenly 
Mayenne's  at-  turned  and  presented  himself  on  the  banks  of  the 
^buT?fthe  Loire.  The  city  of  Tours,  built  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  river,  was  united  by  a  bridge  to  the  suburb  of 
Saint  Symphorien,  occupying  the  opposite  shore.  To  get  pos- 
session of  the  suburb  was  Mayenne's  first  object,  and  in  this, 
after  a  long  and  severe  struggle,  he  was  successful.  Nor,  in- 
deed, did  it  seem  improbable  that  he  would  go  farther,  and  that 
Tours  itself  would  fall  into  his  hands.  Fortunately  Navarre,  to 
whom  the  king  in  his  distress  sent,  imploring  assistance,  although 
too  far  distant  to  bring  up  his  whole  forces  in  time,  was  able, 
nevertheless,  to  send  in  advance  his  arquebusiers,  under  com- 
mand of  Francois  de  Chatillon.  Never  was  help  more  timely 
or  effective.  With  the  support  of  the  Huguenots,  the  loyal 
Roman  Catholics  turned  the  tide  of  battle,  and  the  night  fell 
leaving  the  bridge  still  in  the  hands  of  the  king's  troops. 

Nor  was  Henry  of  Yalois  altogether  insensible  of  the  great 
service  which  the  Protestants,  lately  hunted  down  with  relent- 
less hatred,  had  rendered  him.  He  even  testified  his  apprecia- 
tion of  their  valor  by  ostentatiously  throwing  the  white  scarf 
of  the  Bourbon  prince  over  his  own  shoulders,  to  the  no  small 
disgust  of  such  bigoted  and  intolerant  followers  as  Monsieur 
d'O,  Clermont  d'Entragues,  and  Chateauvieux,  while  sensible 
Roman  Catholics  like  Marshal  Aumont  applauded  the  act. 

The  soldiers  of  the  League  were  not  less  complimentary  than 
the  king ;  for,  recognizing  among  their  opponents  the  cham- 
pions of  that  religion  which  they  were  sworn  to  exterminate, 
they  had,  notwithstanding,  paid  an  almost  involuntary  tribute 
to  their  valor.  "  Withdraw,  wearers  of  the  white  scarf !  "  they 
cried.  "  Withdraw,  brave  Huguenots,  honorable  men  !  With- 
draw, Chatillon  !  It  is  not  with  you  we  have  to  do,  but  with 
that  perjurer,  the  murderer  of  your  father !  "  1  It  seemed  to 
men  a  strange  freak  of  fortune  that  threw  in  the  way  of  Ad- 
miral Coligny's  son  the  opportunity  to  defend  against  the  as- 


1  The  words  are  given,  with  slight  variations,  by  Lestoile,  i.  294,  by  Agrippa 
d'Aubigne,  iii.  169,  etc. 


150      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.      Cii.  X 

sault  of  one  of  the  Guisards  the  life  of  a  king  who  had  coun- 
tenanced Henry  of  Guise  in  his  dastardly  plot  to  butcher  the 
great  Huguenot  captain  in  the  Rue  de  Bethisy.1  That  night 
the  suburb  of  Saint  Symphorien  remained  in  the  power  of  the 
army  of  the  League.  Of  the  deeds  of  horror  that  were  per- 
Excessesof  petrated  contemporary  chronicles  have  left  us  ac- 
the  LeTgu? at  counts  whose  authenticity  is  but  too  well  attested. 
Tours,  Men,  claiming  to  be  enlisted  in  the  defence  of  religion, 

boldly  avowed  the  principle  that  the  champions  of  so  holy  a 
cause  were  justified  in  disregarding  every  precept  of  the  divine 
law,  and  might  properly  give  the  rein  to  every  unholy  passion. 
Not  a  woman  that  fell  into  their  hands  was  spared  the  most 
extreme  indignities.  Drawn  from  their  hiding-places,  all  were 
alike  made  to  minister  to  the  lust  of  a  soldiery  that  showed  no 
respect  for  things  human  or  divine.  Even  the  church  of  Saint 
Symphorien,  which  gave  its  name  to  the  suburb,  afforded  no 
safe  refuge  to  the  miserable  fugitives.  Maid  and  matron  were 
outraged  in  the  holy  precincts,  and  before  the  eyes  of  fathers, 
brothers,  and  husbands,  compelled,  at  the  point  of  the  sword, 
to  look  on,  but  impotent  to  render  assistance.  It  was  a  prac- 
tical demonstration  of  the  hypocrisy  of  the  League's  pretence 
of  warring  against  its  lawful  king  in  behalf  of  the  orthodox 
Christian  faith,  that  Roman  Catholics  inflicted  this  violence  not 
upon  heretics,  but  upon  their  fellow  Roman  Catholics.  The 
-coffers  of  the  church  and  the  instruments  of  its  most  sacred 
rites  were  not  too  holy  to  be  plundered.  Two  chalices  having 
been  discovered,  of  which  the  one  was  of  silver  and  the  other  of 
pewter,  the  pious  robbers  found  it  a  good  occasion  for  the  dis- 
play of  their  grim  humor.  The  pewter  chalice  was  inconti- 
nently declared  to  belong  to  the  "  Union,"  and  could  not  be 
touched  with  a  clear  conscience;  but  the  silver  was  "  royal  n 
and  "  heretical,"  and,  consequently,  a  lawful  prize.1 

1  "Mr.  de  Chastillon,  a  la  teste  des  troupes  de  ceux  de  la  religion,  fit  nier- 
veille  de  bien  combattre  pour  le  roy  qui  avoit  assiste  de  sa  presence  le  due  de 
Guise  lorsqu'il  fit  massacrer  laschement  l'amiral  son  pere,  pendant  le  regne 
de  feu  son  frere  Charles  neuviesme."     Memoires  de  Jacques  Gaches,  3^S. 

-See  the  loyalist  pamphlet,  "  Conseil  salutaire  d'un  bon  Francois  aux 
Parisiens     .     .     .     avec  un  discours  veritable  des  actes  plus  nicmorables  de 


1589.  UNION   OF  THE  TWO  KINGS.  151 

Had  the  incidents  of  the  treatment  of  the  faubourg  Saint 
Svmphorien  stood  alone,  there  would  be  little  occasion  for  re- 
mark. The  best  of  causes  may  sometimes  be  unfortunate  in 
and  else-  the  persons  of  its  advocates.  But  the  conduct  of  the 
soldiers  of  the  League  at  Tours  did  not  constitute  a 
solitary  exception.  It  was  the  rule  of  what  happened  through- 
out France.  Where,  as  at  Arquenay,  near  Laval,  credulous 
Roman  Catholic  burghers  submitted  to  troops  professing  the 
same  religious  tenets,  with  little  fear  of  suffering  wrong,  they 
were  speedily  undeceived.  Their  own  lives,  the  honor  of  their 
wives,  the  treasures  of  their  churches — ail  were  sacrificed. 
Sometimes,  in  mere  wantonness,  the  Leaguers  took  delight  in 
defiling  baptismal  fonts  with  filth,  or  dressed  the  camp-follow- 
ers, by  way  of  derision,  in  the  vestures  of  the  priests,  or  paro- 
died the  service  of  the  mass  and  gave  the  consecrated  wafer  to 
the  dogs,  or  trampled  it  under  foot.  Now  and  then,  it  is  said, 
they  pretended  to  evidence  both  their  scrupulous  determination 
to  observe  the  church's  appointed  fasts,  and  their  belief  in  the 
virtue  of  the  sacraments  when  administered  by  an  ecclesias- 
tic properly  ordained.  Setting  before  a  curate,  or  his  vicar,  a 
plentiful  supply  of  meat,  they  compelled  him,  with  the  dag- 
ger at  his  throat,  to  go  through  the  ritual  of  Holy  Baptism. 
When  veal,  pork,  mutton,  chickens,  and  capon  had  been  duly 
christened  by  the  names  of  pike,  carp,  soles,  turbot,  and  herring, 
the  mailed  champions  of  the  papacy,  pledged  to  the  utter  exter- 
mination of  the  Huguenots,  did  not  hesitate  to  partake  of  the 
most  sumptuous  banquet  on  the  days  of  strict  abstinence.1     In 

la  Ligue,  depuis  la  journee  des  Barricades,  jusques  a  la  fin  de  May,  1589,"  re- 
printed in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iii.  446,  447,  and,  in  part,  in  Cimber  et 
Danjou,  Archives  curieuses,  xii.  312-348.     Recueil  des  choses  memorables, 

693  ;  Lestoile,  i.  293,  294 ;  De  Thou,  vii.  456. 

1  The  author  of  the  '"Conseil  salutaire,"  above  cited,  himself  evidently  a 
Roman  Catholic  as  well  as  a  loyalist,  expressly  declares,  with  respect  to  this 
particular  form  of  sacrilege,  that  it  had  occurred  more  than  once  :  "  Cela  ne 
s'est  pas  fait  en  un  lieu  seul,  ne  (ni)  par  une  seule  troupe,  ni  une  seule  fois  ;  vous 
ne  le  pouvez  ignorer,  comme  aussi  ne  pouvez-vous  l'endurer,  que  vous  ne  par- 
ticipiez  a  cest  atheisme,  pour  lequel  sans  doute  Dieu  les  confondrabientost  et 
vous  aussi."     Ubi  supra,  iii.  439.     See,  also,  Recueil  des  choses  memorables, 

694  ;  Lestoile.  i.  298.  The  curious  reader  may  compare  with  this  occurrence, 
thus  vouched  for,  the  story  oi  Boccaccio  (to  which  Mr.  Creighton  has  referred 


152     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  X. 

short,  to  such  a  pass  had  matters  come,  that  a  royalist  could  bit- 
terly exclaim,  and  others  caught  up  the  remark  and  gave  it 
their  indorsement :  "  At  the  present  day,  to  plunder  one's 
neighbor;  to  murder  one's  brother,  uncle,  cousin;  to  rob  altars; 
to  profane  churches ;  to  levy  upon  Catholics — this  is  the  ordi- 
nary exercise  of  a  Leaguer.  To  have  the  mass  and  religion 
always  on  the  lips,  and  atheism  in  the  heart  and  in  the  actions ; 
in  a  word,  to  violate  laws,  divine  and  human,  is  the  infallible 
mark  of  a  '  zealous  Catholic'  "  ' 

The  insolence  of  the  League  at  Tours  was  short-lived.  As 
soon  as  night  was  over,  Mayenne,  fearing  to  attempt  to  hold 
the  suburb,  or  to  renew  his  attempt  upon  the  town,  since  the 
King  of  Navarre  had  come  to  the  help  of  the  King  of  France, 
hastily  withdrew  the  attacking  force.  And  now,  indeed, 
The  fortunes  strengthened  by  the  accession  of  the  Huguenots, 
vaSsnSi-of  whom  he  had  once  driven  forth  from  his  presence, 
prove.  Henry  of  Yalois  seemed  to  have  passed  the  apogee  of 

his  unfortunate  reign.  The  capital  might  rave  in  its  fury 
against  the  monarch  who  had  added  to  the  crime  of  assassinat- 
ing the  "  good  Catholic  princes  "  the  yet  more  heinous  offence 
of  making  common  cause  with  an  excommunicated  heretic  ;  the 
doctors  of  the  Sorbonne  might  stand  by  their  rebellions  opin- 
ions, adding,  on  the  fifth  of  April,  a  fresh  resolution,  to  the  ef- 
fect that  the  petition  for  Henry  of  Yalois  should  henceforth  be 
dropped  from  the  canon  of  the  Mass,  and  prescribing  a  form 
of  prayers  which  the  clergy  might  use  for  those  in  authority, 

in  his  History  of  the  Papacy,  i.  110),  of  the  "bishop  who,  not  having  fish  at  hand 
for  his  dinner  on  Friday,  eats  a  partridge  and  explains  the  act  thus  to  his 
scandalized  servant :  "  You  know  that  by  means  of  words  I  and  all  the  other 
priests  make  of  a  wafer,  which  is  nothing  hut  wheat  and  water,  the  precious 
body  of  Jesus  Christ.  Can  I  not  then  much  more  by  words  cause  these  par- 
tridges, which  are  flesh,  to  be  converted  into  fish,  albeit  they  may  still  retain 
the  form  of  partridges  ?  " 

'  "Conseil  salutaire,"  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iii.  447,  448.  (The  expres- 
sion is  repeated  in  almost  the  same  words  by  Lestoile,  i.  290,  291. )  Else- 
where the  anonymous  writer  uses  equally  strong  words  to  describe  the  prowess 
of  the  Leaguer  :  "  Aussi  les  violemens  des  femmes  et  fllles  de  tous  ages, 
mesmes  es  temples  saincts,  les  sacrileges  des  autels,  cela  n'est  que  jeu  parmi 
eux,  c'est  vaillantise  et  galanterie,  c'est  une  forme  essentiel  d'un  bon 
ligueur."     Ubi  supra,  iii.  439. 


1580.  UNION  OF  THE  TWO   KINGS.  153 

without  leading  the  incautious  people  to  mistake  the  celebrant's 
intention  and  suppose  that  he  was  interceding  for  the  hated 
monarch  ; J  the  pope  might  fulminate  a  "  Monitory,"  excommu- 
nicating the  King  of  France,  unless,  within  ten  days,  he  should 
release  the  Cardinal  of  Bourbon  and  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons 
from  the  unjust  imprisonment  in  which  they  were  detained, 
and  summoning  him  and  his  accomplices  to  appear  at  Rome,, 
within  sixty  days,  to  give  account  for  the  murder  of  the  Cardi- 
nal of  Guise.2  But  neither  the  wrath  of  the  Parisians,  nor  the 
denunciations  of  the  Sorbonne,  nor  the  ecclesiastical  thunders 
of  Sixtus  the  Fifth  could  check  the  progress  of  the  two  kings. 
It  is  true  that  the  poor  commons  of  France,  burdened  almost 
beyond  endurance,  were  in  no  mood  to  lend  very  enthusiastic 
support  ;  but  the  rebellion  of  the  "  Gautiers" — armed  peasants 
of  Normandy — had  been  suppressed,3  and  there  was  the  pros- 
pect that  the  patient  tiers  etat  might  continue  for  a  while 
longer  to  afford  to  the  rest  of  Christendom  the  edifying  specta- 
cle of  a  people  crushed  to  the  earth,  but  making  little  or  no 
effort  to  free  itself  from  the  intolerable  load  of  taxation,  and  of 
other  forms  of  oppression  which  monarch,  church,  and  nobles 
had  united  in  heaping  upon  it. 

Defeated  near  Bonneval,  in  Beauce,  by  the  Huguenot  Fran- 
cois de  Chatillon,  and  before  the  walls  of  Senlis,  on  the  opposite 
side  of  Paris,  by  the  troops  of  the  Duke  of  Longue- 

The  king  ad-  ~ 

vances toward  ville,  the  boastful  League  saw  steadily  approaching; 

the  capital.  .  .  °  J  .      ,  & 

the  army  which  might  soon  bring  the  capital  to  sue 
for  peace.  The  mission  of  Schomberg  and  De  Thou  to  Ger- 
many had  met  with  a  favorable  response,  and  Sancy  had  been 
still  more  successful  in  Switzerland.  By  midsummer  a  force 
of  ten  thousand  Swiss,  with  two  thousand  lansquenets  and 
fifteen  hundred  reiters,  had  penetrated  the  kingdom  and  were 
hastening  to  the  king's  assistance.     Meanwhile  Henry  of  Va- 

1  "  Arrests  et  resolution  des  docteurs  de  la  Faculte  de  Paris,  sur  la  question, 
sqavoir  s'il  faloit  prier  pour  le  Roy  au  Canon  de  la  Messe.  A  laquelle  sont 
adjoustees  avec  licence  des  superieurs  deux  oraisons  colligees  pour  la  conser- 
vation des  Princes  Catlioliques,  et  pour  obtenir  la  victoire  encontre  les  enne- 
mis."     Meinoires  de  la  Ligue,  iii.  567-570.  2  De  Thou,  vii.  442,  443. 

aIbid.,  vii.  438,  439.     Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  170. 


154     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Cii.  X. 

lois,  approaching  Paris  from  the  south,  had  come  from  Tours 
to  Jargeaux  and  Pithiviers,  had  taken  Etampes,  hanging  the 
magistrates  of  the  town  as  a  warning  to  others  that  might  vent- 
ure to  defy  his  authority,  and  had  struck  the  Seine  below  the 
capital.  Poissy,  scene  of  the  famous  colloquy,  offered  but  faint 
resistance,  and,  by  means  of  its  broad  bridge,  permitted  the 
royal  forces  to  press  on  to  the  siege  of  Pontoise.1  The  time 
required  for  the  reduction  of  this  place  was  well  spent;  for 
with  Pontoise  in  his  possession,  and  with  a  tight  grasp  upon 
the  lower  Seine,  the  king  effectually  cut  off  all  possibility  of 
victualling  Paris  from  the  direction  of  Kormandy,  whether  by 
land  or  water.  At  this  auspicious  moment  the  Swiss  made 
their  appearance,  in  company  with  Tavannes,  who  had  gone  to 
meet  them  on  the  confines  of  Burgundy,  and  with  Longueville 
and  La  Noue,  whose  troops  had  acted  as  their  convoy  from  the 
province  of  Champagne.  It  was  a  proud  day  for  the  royal 
cause,  lately  so  depressed,  when,  in  company  with  his  cousin  of 
Navarre  and  his  kinsman,  the  Duke  of  Montpensier,  Henry  of 
Yalois  reviewed  an  army  now  numbering  forty-two,  or,  accord- 
ing to  other  accounts,  forty-five  thousand  men. 

If  the  royalists  were  elated,  the  League  was  correspond- 
ingly depressed.  The  Duke  of  Mayenne  had  been  able  to  do 
nothing  to  hinder  the  junction  of  the  foreign  auxiliaries  with 
the  king's  main  force.  lie  now  saw  his  small  army  daily 
shrinking  by  the  desertion  of  the  French  troops,  and  threat- 
ened with  the  loss  of  all  the  foreigners,  who  loudly  talked  of 
going  over  in  a  body  to  the  enemy's  side.  Only  a  blow  at  the 
person  of  the  king  himself  could  save  Paris  from  falling  into 
his  hands,  and  that  blow  wras  now  struck. 

A  weak-headed  monk  of  the  Dominican  order,  a  mere  boy 

of  twenty-two  or  twenty-three  years,  with  mind  possessed  by 

the  idea  incessantly  proclaimed  by  the  preachers  of 

Jacques  cie-    Paris,  that  Henry  of  Yalois  was  not  onlv  a  tyrant 

but  a  perfidious  enemy  of  the  church,  whose  existence 

upon  the  earth  ought  no  longer  to  be  endured — such  was  the 


1  See  the  "  Discours  du  siege  de  Pontoise,"  in  Le  Ckarpentier,  La  Ligue  a 
Pontoise. 


1589.  MURDER   OF   HENRY   OF   VALOIS.  155 

puny  instrument  that  was  to  cut  the  thread  of  the  sovereign's 
life  in  the  very  hour  of  approaching  victory.  Such  was  the 
man  who  was  to  bring  to  its  end  a  royal  house  which  had 
reigned  for  the  space  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-one  years,  and 
had  given  to  France  no  fewer  than  thirteen  successive  monarchs. 
Such  was  the  man  who  was  to  introduce  to  the  throne  a  Hugue- 
not prince,  in  the  person  of  the  first  Bourbon  king  of  France. 
Friar  Jacques  Clement  seems  to  have  meditated  the  murderous 
act  for  a  considerable  time,  but  his  threats,  uttered  when  Henry 
of  Yalois  was  still  distant  from  Paris,  were  regarded  by  those 
who  heard  them  as  idle  boasts,  such  as  weak  men  often  in- 
dulge in  with  the  hope  of  making  themselves  appear  important. 
Davila,  the  historian,  tells  ns  that  he  remembered  well  to  have 
seen  the  future  assassin's  fellow-monks  making  sport  of  an  en- 
thusiast whom  they  regarded  as  master  of  but  half  his  wits, 
and  derisively  styled  "  Captain  Clement."  But  now,  with  Henry 
of  Yalois  hovering  over  Paris,  ready  to  pounce  upon  the  de- 
voted city,  the  League  felt  that  the  critical  moment  had  arrived. 
Xow,  too,  the  friar's  menaces  became  offers,  and  these  offers 
fell  upon  not  unwilling  ears.  Clement's  confessor  did,  indeed, 
refer  him  to  his  superior,  the  prior,  and  both  of  the  ecclesias- 
tics advised  him  to  fast  and  pray,  with  the  view  of  obtaining 
certainty  that  his  design  was  no  instigation  of  the  devil,  but  a 
true  inspiration  from  Heaven.  But  when,  as  might  have  been 
anticipated,  the  hot-headed  youth  returned  with  the  assurance 
that  he  had  followed  their  suggestions,  and  that  he  found  him- 
self only  the  more  impelled  to  his  undertaking,  his  ghostly 
counsellors  themselves  became  the  advocates  of  regicide.  They 
depicted  in  glowing  colors  the  preferment  he  should  have,  if  he 
escaped  death,  and  held  forth  to  him  the  prospect  of  the  mar- 
tyr's crown,  in  case  he  should  perish.  They  introduced  him 
to  the  "  holy  widow,"  as  she  was  called,  the  Duchess  of  Mont- 
He  is  encour-  pensier,  sister  of  the  murdered  Guises,  and  that  f ren- 
iKchew  ofhe  zied  devotee  of  the  League  encouraged  him  yet  more 
Montpeneier.  ^0  persevere  {n  his  project.  She  received  him  hospit- 
ably at  her  house,  and  plied  him  with  all  the  persuasive  arts 
which  the  members  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  then  active  in  the 
capital,  were  able  to  exercise.     If  the  duchess  be  not  greatly 


156     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  X. 

maligned,  she  even  stimulated  his  courage  by  dishonorable  fa- 
vors accorded  or  promised.1 

Thus  it  was  that,  on  the  last  day  of  July,  the  clownish  monk, 

having  been  provided  by  an  unsuspecting  royalist  lately  taken 

prisoner  by  the  Parisians  with  a  letter  of  introduc- 

Clement  r.  .  J       .  .  . 

comes  to  st.     tion  to  his  mends  in  the  kings  annv,  commending 

Cloud.  ,  .  tit.  •         11.  . 

him  as  a  man  who  had  important  intelligence  to  give 
to  Henry  in  person,  found  his  way  to  the  village  of  St.  Cloud, 
where  the  monarch  had  taken  up  his  quarters  in  the  castle  not 
long  since  erected  by  Gondy.  Clement  came  none  too  soon. 
The  king's  troops  already  invested  the  northern  suburbs  of 
Paris — St.  Honore,  Montmartre,  and  St.  Denis  ;  while  Henry 
of  Navarre,  with  his  quarters  at  Meudon,  kept  the  southern 
suburbs  of  St.  Germain  and  St.  Marcel  well  shut  in.  A  gen- 
eral assault  on  the  enemy's  works  had  been  determined  upon 
for  the  second  day  of  August.  Early  on  the  morning  of  Tues- 
day, the  first  day  of  that  month,  the  monk  was  admitted  to  an 
audience  by  the  king,  who  had  just  risen  and  was  partially 
dressed.  Henry  of  Valois,  upon  whose  mind,  as  he  was  wont 
to  tell  his  courtiers,  the  sight  of  the  monastic  cowl  made  an  im- 
pression as  pleasurable  as  the  most  delicate  bodily  sensation,'1 
had  readily  consented  to  see  Clement.  As  readily  did  he  now 
direct  his  attendant  noblemen  to  retire  to  a  distant  part  of 
the  room,  that  he  alone  might  hear  the  friar's  confidential  dis- 
He  wounds  closure.  Clement  had  handed  to  the  seated  monarch 
the  King.  a  ]e^er^  wjth  the  request  that  he  should  peruse  it, 
when  he  saw  that  the  expected  opportunity  was  his.  Quickly 
drawing  from  his  sleeve  a  knife  which  he  had  kept  there  eon- 

1  "lis  ajoutent,"  says  the  historian  De  Thou  (vii.  488),  who  never  fails  to  be 
as  charitable  as  the  circumstances  of  the  case  will  permit  him  to  be.  "  que, 
pour  achever  de  le  determiner,  elle  en  etoit  venue  jusqu'a  lui  accorder  sur 
l'heure  ce  qu'il  y  avoit  de  plus  capable  de  tenter  un  inoine  debauche  ;  ce  que 
je  ne  puis  cependant  croire,  a  moins  qu'on  dise  que  l'ardeur  de  la  vengeance, 
qui  avoit  deja  aveugle  cette  femme  violente  jusqu'a  lui  faire  commettre  tant 
d'autres  crimes,  Tengagea  encore,  pour  assouvir  sa  rage,  a  fermer  les  yeux  sur 
l'infamie  de  celui-ci." 

2  u  Je  lui  ai  moi-meme  souvent  entendu  dire,  que  leur  vue  [sc.  des  moines] 
produisoit  le  meme  effet  sur  son  ame,  que  le  chatouillement  le  plus  delicat 
sur  le  corps."     De  Thou,  vii.  486. 


1589.  MURDER   OF   HENRY   OF   V ALOIS.  157 

cealed,  he  instantly  plunged  it  up  to  the  handle  in  the  body  of 
the  unprotected  man  before  him,  making  a  deep  gash  on  the 
left  side  of  the  abdomen.  In  another  moment  Henry  had 
drawn  the  weapon  out,  still  further  enlarging  the  wound,  and 
with  it  had  struck  Clement  on  the  forehead.  At  the  noise  of 
the  scuffle,  and  at  the  sound  of  the  king's  exclamation,  "  Ah ! 
the  wicked  monk  !  "  the  noblemen  in  attendance  rushed  to  the 
king's  side.  One  of  them  ran  Clement  through  with  his  sword, 
thus  despatching  the  murderer,  and  saving  him  from  the  linger- 
ing tortures  which  would  otherwise  have  been  his  fate.  In  an- 
other moment  the  infuriated  courtiers  had  precipitated  the  body 
of  the  assassin  from  the  window  to  the  ground  below,  there  to 
be  torn  in  pieces  and  burned.  The  ashes  were  ultimately  cast 
into  the  Seine.1 

The  first  opinion  of  his  physicians  was  favorable  to  the  king's 
recovery.  Letters  wTere  accordingly  written  in  his  name  to  the 
Count  of  Montbeliard  and  other  allied  princes  abroad,  as  well 
as  to  Duplessis  Mornay,  and  to  other  officers  and  governors 
throughout  the  kingdom,  full  of  hopeful  prognostications.  His 
perfidious  enemies,  Henry  was  made  to  say,  in  despair  of  suc- 
ceeding by  other  means,  had  taken  advantage  of  the  zeal  he 
bore  to  his  religion,  and  the  free  access  and  audience  he  was 
accustomed  to  give  to  all  religious  persons,  poor  churchmen, 
that  desired  to  talk  with  him,  and  had  violated  all  divine  laws 
by  sending  a  Dominican  monk  to  assassinate  him.  But  God 
had  disappointed  his  damnable  design,  by  causing  the  knife  to 
slip ;  so  that,  if  it  pleased  Him,  no  damage  would  ensue,  and 
in  a  few  days  he  would  recover  his  former  health.2  But  the 
joy  of  fancied  deliverance  from  peril  was  short-lived.  A  hem- 
orrhage, unnoticed  at  first,  showed  that  the  wound  of  the  royal 
patient  was  mortal.     Isor  did  Henry  of  Valois,  when  he  learned 

1  The  composers  of  anagrams  were  unusually  fortunate  in  the  case  of  the 
assassin's  name.  They  found  that  "  Frere  Jacques  Clement  "  was  convertible 
into  "  C'est  l'enfer  qui  m'a  cree  " — "  It  was  hell  that  created  me."  The  dis- 
covery was  altogether  so  satisfactory  as  to  discourage  any  further  attempts. 

2  Henry  III.  to  the  Count  of  Montbeliard,  Bridge  of  St  Cloud,  August  1, 
1589,  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iii.  590,  591.  The  same  to  Duplessis  Mornay, 
same  date,  in  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  iv.  379-381. 


158      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     On.  X. 

the  fact,  exhibit  any  lack  of  courage.  In  fact,  if  the  manner  of 
dying  were  as  satisfactory  a  test  of  character  as  the  manner  of 
living,  we  might  easily  be  misled  by  the  calm  deportment  and 
pious  words  of  a  prince  who  until  now  had  merited  little  else 
of  the  world  than  loathing  and  contempt.  But  while  we  may 
charitably  pass  by  without  comment  the  religious  professions  of 
the  king,  we  must  note  his  political  injunctions,  and  particularly 
his  views  of  the  treatment  of  the  Huguenots.  Instead  of  the 
prosecution  of  a  plan  for  the  extermination  of  heresy  such  as  he 
had  ostentatiously  proposed  for  himself  after  the  murder  of  the 
Duke  of  Guise,  he  counselled  his  assembled  noblemen  to  defer 
the  settlement  of  differences  in  matters  of  religion  until  the 
convocation  of  the  states  general  of  the  realm.  Meanwhile  he 
conjured  them  to  remain  united,  and  never  to  lay  down  their 
arms  until  they  should  have  utterly  cleansed  France  of  those  who 
now  disturbed  its  peace.  Above  all,  he  called  upon  them  to 
give  their  loyal  support  to  his  successor,  Henry  of  Navarre,  who. 
on  receiving  the  news  of  the  monk's  dastardly  attack,  bad 
hastily  ridden  over  from  Meudon,  and  at  that  moment  si 
in  the  midst  of  the  group  of  his  sorrowing  attendants.  "  I  pray 
you  as  my  friends,  and  I  command  you  as  your  king,"  said  he, 
"  to  recognize  after  my  death  my  brother  who  stands  there."  ' 

The  customary  mass  was  celebrated ;  the  customary  litanies 
were  repeated.  The  solemn  words  of  the  u  Miserere  "  were  upon 
Death  of  the  dying  king's  lips  as  he  followed  the  voice  of  the 
Sis"rL°guIta  officiating  priest,  when,  just  as  he  reached  the  petition, 
2,1589.  "  Redde  mihi  lcetitia?)i  salutis  tui" — "Restore  unto 

me  the  joy  of  thy  salvation  " — speech  failed  him."  It  was  early 
on  the  morning  of  the  second  of  August,  1589,  that  he  ex- 
pired. Though  he  had  reigned  more  than  fifteen  years,  he  waa 
but  a  little  more  than  thirty-six  years  of  age.3 


1  Memoires  du  Due  d'Angouleme  (Collection  Petitot),  532.  See,  also,  the 
reported  speecli  in  the  contemporary  publication,  "  L'assassinat  et  parricide 
commis  en  la  personne  du  tres-chrestien  et  tres-illustre  Roy  de  France  et  de 
Pologne,  Henri  troisiesme  du  noni,"  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iii.  587-580. 

2  Davila,  406. 

"  For  the  incidents  connected  with  the  death  of  Henry  III.,  the  following, 
among  others,  may  be  consulted  :  Pasquier,  Lettres,  ii.  333-335  ;  Lestoile,  i. 


1589.  MURDER  OF   HENRY   OF   VALOIS.  159 

One  of  the  last  of  Henry  of  Valois'  reported  speeches  is  said 
to  have  been  a  suggestion  to  his  namesake  of  Navarre  to  abjure 
his  present  religious  faith :  "  Brother,  I  assure  you,"  he  is  said 
to  have  exclaimed  twice,  as  he  embraced  him,  "  you  will  never 
be  King  of  France  if  you  turn  not  Catholic,  and  if  you  humble 
not  yourself  to  the  church."  '  Yet,  even  with  respect  to  the 
deceased  himself,  so  difficult  and  doubtful  was  the 
excommimi-    question  whether  he  did  not  die  excommunicated,  that 

cated*  , 

the  answer  could  only  be  reached  by  an  arithmetical 
process.  His  enemies,  indeed,  maintained  that  the  monitory  of 
Sixtus  settled  the  point ;  for  the  Yery  Christian  King  had 
neither  liberated  the  imprisoned  prelates  nor  done  penance  for 
the  murder  of  the  Cardinal  of  Guise.  But  his  advocate,  the 
Duke  of  Xevers,  had  an  unanswerable  argument  to  offer  in  re- 
joinder. The  papal  monitory  itself  had  allowed  thirty  days  for 
the  release  of  the  Cardinal  of  Bourbon  and  the  Archbishop  of 
Lyons,  dating  from  the  formal  publication  of  the  document 
within  the  kingdom.  Now,  that  publication  took  place  in  the 
city  of  Chartres  on  the  ninth  day  of  July.  Since  Jacques  Cle- 
ment struck  the  blow  of  which  the  king  died  within  twenty-four 
days,  or  on  the  first  of  August,  it  was  evident,  not  only  that 
Henry  the  Third  died  free  of  the  censures  of  the  church,  but 


301,  etc.  ;  Davila,  ubi  supra  ;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  182-185  ;  De  Thou,  vii. 
486-489  ;  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  702  ;  Journal  d  un  cure  ligueur 
(Jehan  de  la  Fosse),  225,  226  ;  Memoires  du  Due  d'Angouleme,  529,  etc. ; 
L'assassinat  et  parricide  commis  en  la  personne  dutres-chrestien  et  tres-illustre 
Roy  de  France  et  de  Pologne,  Henri  troisiesme  du  nom,  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue, 
iii.  587,  etc. ;  Discours  veritable  de  l'estrange  et  subite  mort  de  Henri  de  Valois, 
ibid.,  iv.  9,  etc.,  and  other  pieces  of  the  times  reprinted  in  the  same  collection, 
and  in  Cimber  et  Danjou,  Archives  curieuses,  vol.  xii.,  such  as  l'Le  inartyre 
de  Frere  Jacques  Clement,"  etc. 

1  Davila,  ubi  supra.  According  to  the  Duke  of  Angouleme  (ubi  supra,  530), 
who  was  present,  his  words  were :  "La  justice,  de  laquelle  j'ay  tousjours  este 
le  protecteur,  veut  que  vous  succediez  apres  moy  a  ce  royaume,  dans  lequel 
vous  aurez  beaucoup  de  traverses  si  vous  ne  vous  resolvez  a  changer  de  religion. 
Je  vous  y  exhorte  autant  pour  le  salut  de  vostre  ame  que  pour  1 'a vantage  du 
bien  que  je  vous  souhaite."  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  writer  of  these 
Memoires  was  Charles,  Count  of  Auvergne,  natural  son  of  Charles  IX.  by  Marie 
Touchet,  a  lad  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  at  the  time  of  his  uncle's  death.  He  sub- 
sequently became  Duke  of  Angouleme. 


160     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.      Ch.  X. 

that  lie  had  actually  a  respectable  number  of  days  of  grace — 
nine,  according  to  the  duke's  liberal  computation.1 

However  this  might  be,  of  one  thing  there  was  no  doubt : 

the  King  of  France,  a  Poman  Catholic,  had  been  murdered  by 

the  hand  of  a  Eoman  Catholic — indeed,  of  a  monk  of 

The  murder- 

cms  deed  ema-  the  Poman  Catholic  Church.     It  was  no  persecuted 

nates  from  a  L 

Roman  Catho-  Huguenot,  maddened  by  the  remembrance  of  past 
wrongs  done  by  Henry  or  his  predecessors,  that  had 
avenged  the  injuries  of  his  fellow-believers.  It  was  no  fanat- 
ical Protestant,  intoxicated  by  the  prospect  of  securing  a  mon- 
arch of  his  own  faith  and  party,  that  had  opened  the  way  to 
the  throne  for  Henry  of  Xavarre  by  violently  thrusting  aside 
the  only  obstacle  remaining  in  the  way.  The  Protestants  of 
France,  the  hated  Huguenots,  had  added  yet  another  proof  that 
they  were  no  regicides,  by  abstaining,  through  the  long  years 
of  oppression  under  a  fifth  persecuting  king,  from  the  slightest 
attempt  to  play  the  part  of  self-constituted  agents  of  divine 
retribution.  In  an  age  in  which  assassination  was  so  common, 
they  were  fairly  entitled  to  this  proud  distinction ;  and  it  is 
noteworthy  that  a  member  of  the  "  Sacred  College,''  a  Puman 
cardinal,  voluntarily  accorded  them  this  unsolicited  homage  in 
a  secret  interview  which  he  held,  some  years  later,  with  the 
pope's  principal  representative.  It  was  on  Sunday,  the  twenty- 
second  of  January,  1595,  that  the  eminent  Cardinal  Ossat  sought 
and  obtained  an  interview  with  Cardinal  Aldobrandini,  neph- 
ew of  Pope  Clement  the  Eighth.  The  news  of  the  attempt 
made  upon  the  life  of  Henry  the  Fourth,  now  a  Roman  Cath- 
olic, by  Jean  Chastel,  had  reached  Pome  only  the  preceding 


1  "Traite  des  causes  et  des  raisons  de  la  prise  des  armes,"  Menioires  de 
Nevers,  ii.  47.  Nevers  reckons  only  to  July  31st,  when  Jacques  Clinent  de- 
parted from  Paris,  after  having  celebrated  the  mass,  on  his  mission  of  anami- 
nation. Cardinal  Ossat  will  have  it  that  the  term  was  but  of  ten  days,  at  the 
most,  between  the  publication  of  the  monitory  and  Henry's  death ;  so  that 
there  were  full  twenty  days  to  spare.  "  Raisons  et  moyens  pour  montrer  que 
le  Roy  Henri  III.  n'est  mort  excommunie,"  in  Memoires  du  Cardinal  d'Ossat. 
i.  29-32.  Unfortunately,  even  such  high  dignitaries  as  the  members  of  the 
"  Sacred  College  "  have  occasionally  been  known  to  yield  to  the  temptation  of 
tampering  with  facts  in  the  interest  of  those  whom  they  desired  to  favor. 


1589.  MURDER  OF  HENRY   OF   VALOIS.  161 

Thursday.  In  reference  to  this  great  crime  the  French  cardi- 
nal had  much  to  say.  "  From  such  outrages,"  remarked  Ossat, 
"  as  you  have  very  wisely  and  holily  said,  no  good  can  come. 
In  the  case  of  a  prince  converted  to  the  Catholic  religion, 
who  ought  to  be  strengthened  and  built  up  in  every  way, 
it  is  calculated  to  put  a  great  stumbling-block  in  his  path, 
and  to  disgust  him  with  the  Catholics,  when  those  who  style 
themselves  the  support  of  the  Catholic  religion  thus  seek  to 
assassinate  him.  If  there  were  any  occasion  for  such  murder- 
ous plots,  it  would  be  the  part  of  the  heretics  to  contrive  and 

execute  them — the  heretics  whom  he  has  left  and  for- 
nots  nev^er  saken,  and  who  might  have  reason  to  fear  him.  And, 
the  kings  of     nevertheless,   they  have   attempted   nothing   of  the 

kind,  either  against  him  or  against  any  of  the  five 
kings,  his  predecessors,  whatever  butchery  their  majesties  may 
have  made  of  the  aforesaid  Huguenots."  1 

Xo,  it  was  not  a  Huguenot  hand  that  had  despatched  Henry 
the  Third — an  inveterate  hater  of  Protestantism  and  everything 
Protestant,  a  prince  who,  in  his  last  moments,  was  overheard, 
at  the  moment  when  his  almoner,  Boulogne,  was  offering  mass 
in  his  behalf,  to  address  the  Almighty  in  these  words :  "  Thou 
knowest,  my  Lord  and  my  God,  that  nothing  is  so  dear  to  me 
as  the  maintenance  of  the  true  Catholic,  Apostolic,  and  Roman 
religion,  of  which  I  have  ever  made  profession."  2  It  was  the 
hand  of  a  Dominican  monk  that  had  done  the  deed.  It  was 
by  Roman  Catholics  professedly  the  most  zealous  for  their  faith 
that  the  assassination  had  been  instigated,  and  it  was  they  who 
now,  in  their  savage  delight  over  the  success  of  their  miserable 
agent,  indulged  in  such  mad  demonstrations  as  Paris  has  wit- 
nessed only  once  since  then,  when  a  revolutionary  mob  held 
high  carnival  over  the  corpses  of  Louis  the  Sixteenth  and  Marie 


1  Cardinal  d'Ossat  to  M.  de  Villeroy,  Rome,  January  25,  1595,  Lettres  du 
Cardinal  d'Ossat,  i.  108.  "  La  ou  s  il  y  avoit  aucun  lieu  de  tels  assassinats,  ce 
seroit  aux  Heretiques  a  les  pourchasser,  ou  executer,  eux  qu'il  a  quitez  et 
abandonnez,  et  qui  auroient  a,  se  craindre  de  lui.  Et  toutefois,  ils  n'ont  rien 
attente  de  tel,  ni  contre  lui,  ni  contre  aucun  de  cinq  Rois,  ses  predecesseurs, 
quelque  boucherie  que  leurs  Majestez  ayent  faite  desdits  Huguenots." 

2  Memoires  du  Vuc  d'Angouleme,  529. 

Vol.  IL— 11 


1P>2     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.      Ca  X 

Antoinette.     And  it  was  the  Roman  pontiff,  Pope  Sixtus  die 

Fifth,  who,  transcending  the  bounds  of  ordinary  prudence,  as 

well  as  of  what  is  esteemed  decent  in  civilized  coun- 

The  expression         .  ,.-,. 

of  pope  sixtus  tries,  declared  to  his  cardinals,  in  an  allocution  care- 
fully prepared  beforehand,  that  the  action  of  Jacques 
Clement  wTas  an  enterprise  so  surprising,  and  so  admirable,  that 
he  did  not  fear  to  compare  it  to  the  work  of  the  Incarnation  of 
the  Word,  and  to  the  mystery  of  the  Resurrection  of  our  Lord. 
It  was  the  same  reputed  head  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
that  pronounced  a  eulogy  upon  the  courage,  constancy,  and  zeal 
of  the  depraved  monk  who  had  ended  his  dissolute  life  after 
murdering  the  Very  Christian  King,  and  exalted  the  monk 
himself  to  a  position  superior  to  that  occupied  in  history  by 
Judith  and  Eleazer.1  No  wonder,  then,  that  laymen  like  Men- 
doza,  the  Spanish  ambassador,  found  nothing  else  but  the  hand 
of  the  Almighty  himself  to  which  the  "happy  event "  could 
be  ascribed ;  or,  like  young  Maximilian,  of  Bavaria,  were  full 
of  joy  that  the  King  of  France  had  been  despatched.' 

The  day  was  yet  distant  when  the  church  was  to  feel  shame 
for  the  deed  which  Sixtus  had  lauded,  and  when  the  Dominican 
a  literary  order  would  show  some  desire  to  disclaim  connection 
curiosity.       with  the  assassin  of  Henry  tjie  Third.     That  day  had 

come  when,  in  the  following  century,  an  over-zealous  member 
of  the  order  gravely  undertook  to  demonstrate  that  it  was  not 
the  real  Jacques  Clement,  but  possibly  a  disguised  Huguenot, 
who  plunged  the  fatal  knife  into  the  body  of  the  last  Valois 
king  of  France.  The  world,  however,  was  not  convinced,  and 
the  curious  will  probably  long  continue  to  peruse  the  Dominican 
apology,  much  as  the  "Historic  Doubts  relative  to  Napoleon 

1  Ranke,  History  of  the  Popes  (Amer.  edit.),  211.  De  Thou,  who  gives  a 
pretty  full  account  of  the  papal  allocution  in  the  consistory  of  September  11, 
1589  (vii.  495),  is  unable  to  repress  his  honest  indignation  at  words  "  so  un- 
worthy of  the  common  father  of  all  the  faithful."  After  which,  it  is  not 
surprising  either  that  his  magnificent  work,  the  most  precious  historical  pro- 
duction of  the  sixteenth  century,  was  censured  at  Rome,  or  that  its  title  oc- 
curs in  the  Index  Librorum  Prohibitorum  (I  have  before  me  the  edition  of 
Rome,  1841)  as  condemned  by  the  decrees  of  November  9,  1609,  and  Ma_\  id, 
1757. 

2  Ranke,  ubi  supra. 


1..S9  MURDER  OF  HENRY   OF   V ALOIS.  163 

Buonaparte  "  and  similar  works  of  delicate  irony  are  read,  with 
little  expectation,  indeed,  that  the  established  belief  will  be  re- 
versed, but  with  unbounded  admiration  for  the  author's  inge- 
nuity.1 

So  did  a  monarch,  whom  few  loved,  whom  none  sincerely  re- 
spected, end  his  reign.    Of  pleasing  appearance  and  easy  address, 
endowed  by  nature  with  no  little  power  over  men  by 

Character  of  .,.  , 

Henry  of  va-  means  or  a  conciliatory  oratory,  he  threw  away  every 
advantage  and  perverted  every  faculty  of  mind  and 
body  in  a  blind  and  reckless  pursuit  of  pleasure.  With  aims 
as  unstable  as  the  caprice  of  the  moment,  he  degraded  life  to 
the  level  of  an  ignoble  sensual  existence,  from  which  not  even 
the  extreme  peril  of  his  position  could  supply  him  motives 
powerful  enough  to  extricate  him.  For  the  most  part,  he 
wished  only  to  be  left  undisturbed  in  those  low  enjoyments 
which  he  esteemed  happiness.  The  very  importunity  of  favor- 
ites soliciting  offices  at  his  hands  irritated  him,  from  time  to 
time,  beyond  endurance.  Certainly,  among  feeble  or  indolent 
monarchs,  the  king  may  fairly  be  deemed  to  have  carried  off 
the  palm  who  issued  his  solemn  edict  declaring  guilty  of  treason 
and  enemies  of  the  public  quiet  all  persons  who,  by  memorial 
or  by  petition,  should  ask  of  him  the  re-establishment  of  certain 
offices  which  he  had  determined  should  be  left  vacant  upon  the 
resignation  or  death  of  the  present  incumbents.2 

A  determined  enemy  of  the  Huguenots,  Henry  of  Valois  had 
left  them  little  peace  during  the  fifteen  years  of  his  troubled 
reign.  If  we  might  credit  the  assertions  of  the  Duke  of  An- 
gouleme,  he  had,  by  his  kindness,  so  gained  the  good  will  of 
the  Protestant  chiefs  that  most  of  them  were  already  resolved 
to  forsake  their  party  and  their  religion.3  Others,  like  the 
Florentine  Cavriana,  four  years  earlier,  anticipated  that,  but  for 


1  The  opuscule  "La  Fatalite  de  S.  Cloud  pres  Paris,"  ascribed  by  some  to 
Pere  Nicolai,  a  Dominican  of  Paris,  by  others  to  Pere  de  la  Haye,  a  member  of 
the  same  order,  of  Lille,  originally  appeared  in  1672.  It  is  reprinted  in  the 
second  volume  of  the  Ratisbon  edition  of  the  Satyre  Menippee,  pp.  435-515. 

'-'  Edict  of  November,  1584,  Isambert,  Recueil  des  anciennes  lois  franchises, 
xiv.  591-593. 

3  Memoires  du  Due  d'Angouleme,  522. 


164      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn  X 

the  war  then  forced  upon  him  by  the  League,  Henry  the  Third 
would  soon  have  compassed  the  utter  extinction  of  Protestant- 
ism in  France.  The  same  results  had  again  and  again  been 
predicted  as  certain  to  flow  from  the  severities  of  Henry  the 
Second  and  his  eldest  son,  had  not  their  lives  been  suddenly 
cut  off.  But  the  Huguenots  had  survived  both  persecution  and 
cajolery ;  and  now  a  Huguenot  prince  had  succeeded  to  the 
throne  of  France. 


15S9.  ACCESSION   OF  HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.  105 


CHAPTER  XL 

ARQUES,  IVRY,  AND  THE  SIEGE  OF  PARIS. 

The  accession  of  a  king  professing  their  own  faith  to  the 
throne  of  a  country  in  which  they  constituted  but  a  small  mi- 
nority of  the  population  marks  an  important  epoch 
a  Huguenot  in  the  history  of  the  Huguenots.  A  contingency  re- 
mote enough,  according  to  human  prognostication,  a 
few  years  since — a  contingency,  however,  which,  improbable  as 
it  seemed,  had  appeared  so  dreadful  as  to  excite  the  fears  of 
many  bigoted  adherents  of  Rome — had  actually  become  a  reality, 
and  that,  too,  hastened  by  the  hands  of  the  very  persons  who 
most  feared  and  dreaded  it.  He  would  have  been  esteemed  a 
madman  who  should  have  ventured  to  prophesy  that  the  Prot- 
estant head  of  the  Bourbon  family  would  be  placed  in  posses- 
sion of  the  French  crown  by  the  hand  of  a  fanatical  monk  ;  or 
that  the  secret  plots  and  intrigues  of  Madame  de  Montpensier 
and  her  fellow-conspirators  would  transmute  the  elected  "  Pro- 
tector "  of  the  Reformed  Churches  into  the  monarch  of  the 
whole  country.  Yet  this  was  precisely  what  the  hatred  of  the 
ultra  Roman  Catholic  party  effected  ;  and  history  can  produce 
few  more  instructive  examples  whereby  to  illustrate  the  ten- 
dency of  blind  human  passion  to  overreach  itself  than  the 
assassination  of  the  last  Valois  king,  a  devoted  adherent  of 
Roman  Catholicism,  by  those  who  found  even  his  zeal  too  cold 
to  satisfy  their  own  hatred  of  Protestantism. 

Yet  must  it  be  confessed  that  rarely  has  a  monarch  ascended 
a  throne  under  more  trying  circumstances  than  did  Henry 
Difficulties  of  the  Fourth.  True,  of  the  legitimacy  of  his  claim 
his  position.    there  could  be  no  nonest  doubt.     None  but  the  most 

prejudiced  mind  could  call  in  question  the  right  of  the  Bour- 
bons, as  descended  from  Robert,  younger  son  of  Saint  Louis,  to 


166      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XL 

follow  the  Yalois  family,  descended  from  Philip  the  Third,  St. 
Louis'  elder  son  ;  or  doubt  that,  among  the  Bourbon  princes, 
Henry  of  Navarre,  as  son  of  Antoine,  was  nearer  to  the  throne 
than  Cardinal  Charles,  Antoine's  younger  brother.  Had  not 
religious  considerations  intervened,  no  dispute  would  have  arisen 
upon  this  point.  Unfortunately  for  Henry,  however,  as  well 
as  for  the  peace  of  France,  royalty  had  sought  and  had  obtained 
the  sanction  of  the  church.  The  king  claimed  to  be  king  by 
the  grace  of  God — not,  it  was  held,  merely  in  the  sense  in 
which  all  the  powers  that  be,  or  the  established  order  of  gov- 
ernment in  general,  may  be  said  to  be  ordained  of  Him — but 
in  a  peculiar,  mystical,  and  sacramental  sense.  The  grace, 
moreover,  was  not  conferred  by  the  very  fact  of  hereditary 
succession,  but  chiefly,  if  not  solely,  so  far  as  France,  at  least, 
was  concerned,  in  connection  with  the  rite  of  unction  at  Rheims, 
celebrated  by  priestly  hands,  with  oil  taken  from  the  sacred 
vial  known  as  "  La  sainte  ampoule."  In  addition  to  this,  the 
kings  of  France  had  accepted,  and  they  still  continued  to  cher- 
ish, as  their  proudest  prerogative,  the  title  of  "  Very  Christian  n 
conferred  upon  them  by  a  pope.  If  the  church  threw  its 
mantle  over  royalty,  was  it  too  much  to  ask  that  royalty  should 
be  in  full  accord  with  the  church  ?  Was  it  too  much  to  require 
that  the  king,  if  not  of  irreproachable  morals,  should,  at  any 
rate,  be  of  immaculate  orthodoxy  ?  How  could  the  people  be 
expected  to  submit  to  the  authority  of  a  king  upon  whose  head 
no  anointing  oil  had  been  poured,  and  who  thus  broke  in 
upon  a  custom  sanctioned  by  the  example  of  the  long  line  of 
his  predecessors  ?  Could  a  Protestant,  on  the  other  hand,  be 
permitted  to  receive  this  sacred  unction  ?  Applied  to  him,  the 
title  "  Very  Christian  "would,  in  the  estimation  of  the  majority 
of  the  nation,  be  solemn  mockery  ;  while,  as  to  the  distribution 
of  ecclesiastical  benefices  and  preferments,  archbishoprics,  bish- 
oprics, and  the  like,  which  the  Concordat  of  Leo  the  Tenth  with 
Francis  the  First  had  made  the  richest  source  of  income  of  the 
crown,  to  intrust  this  to  the  hands  of  a  heretic  would  be  fla- 
grant impiety. 

Moreover,  Henry  of  Navarre  was,   according  to  the   views 
adopted  by  the  majority  of  churchmen,  not  only  a  heretic,  but 


L589.  ACCESSION   OF   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.  167 

an  apostate  condemned  by  the  highest  ecclesiastical  authority, 
and  expressly  declared  by  Pope  Sixtus  the  Fifth,  in  advance  of 
His  relations  the  death  of  Henry  of  Yalois,  to  be  a  child  of  wrath, 
to  the  pope,  excommunicated,  and  incapable  of  inheriting  any 
principality  or  kingdom,  and  especially  the  kingdom  of  France. 
The  idea  that  a  foreign  potentate  could  interfere  in  the  domes- 
tic concerns  of  France  had,  indeed,  been  repudiated  with  honest 
scorn  by  the  best  and  most  patriotic  part  of  the  nation,  and  the 
pope's  bull  had  excited  more  indignation  among  Roman  Catho- 
lics than  dismay  among  Protestants.  Yet  many,  even  of  those 
who  resented  the  pontiff's  unwarranted  interference,  confessed 
their  reluctance  to  acknowledge  the  authority,  and  their  un- 
willingness to  serve  in  arms  under  the  banner  of  a  Protestant 
king. 

It  has  just  been  stated  that  the  adherents  of  Henry's  religion 
formed  a  small  minority  of  the  population  of  France.  What 
added  particularly  to  the  difficulty  of  the  situation  was  the  geo- 
graphical distribution  of  this  minority.  The  Huguenot  strength 
lay  in  the  south.  Much  has  been  said  of  late  of  the  adapt- 
The  Hugue-  edness  of  Roman  Catholicism  and  Protestantism  re- 
inthersoath  spectively  to  the  southern  or  Latin  races,  and  to  the 
of  France.  northern  or  Teutonic ;  and  the  attempt  has  been 
made  to  account  in  this  way,  by  innate  or  congenital  proclivi- 
ties, for  the  reception  of  the  Reformed  doctrines  by  one  large 
portion  of  Christendom,  and  for  the  rejection  of  the  same  doc- 
trines by  another  and  numerically  more  considerable  portion. 
The  explanation,  if  true,  should  apply  with  still  greater  ac- 
curacy of  territorial  demarcation  to  France,  and  should  throw 
light  upon  the  cause  of  the  unequal  diffusion  of  Protestantism 
among  the  provinces  into  which  that  kingdom  was  formerly 
divided.  Instead  of  this,  however,  the  criterion  is  found  to  be 
so  utterly  incorrect  that  the  result  of  its  application  is  the  very 
opposite  of  the  true  state  of  the  case.  In  the  northern  prov- 
Reiigionnot  inces,  in  which  the  admixture  of  German  blood  wras 
bfrac^or*1  the  greatest,  and  where  the  success  of  the  doctrines 
preached  by  Luther  and  Calvin  should  consequently 
have  been  the  most  complete,  Roman  Catholicism  continued  to 
reign  supreme.    In  the  south,  on  the  contrary,  where  the  physi- 


168      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XL 

ognomy  of  the  people,  no  less  than  the  peculiarities  of  the  dia- 
lects they  speak,  betray  the  fact  that  they  belong  distinctively 
to  the  Latin  race,  the  protest  against  the  errors  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  has  never  been  intermitted,  from  the  age  of  the  Albi- 
genses,  through  ages  of  bloody  crusades  and  persecutions,  down 
to  our  own  times.  Paris  has  never  shown  any  marked  hospi- 
parisand  tality  for  the  Reformed  doctrines,  but  Xismes,  "the 
city  of  antiquities,"  where  the  traveller  may  stumble 
at  any  turn  upon  a  temple,  an  amphitheatre,  a  fountain,  or  a 
tower  built  by  the  Romans — Nismes,  whose  archaeological  re- 
mains have  been  said  to  be  surpassed  by  those  of  no  other  city 
of  Western  Europe  save  Rome  itself,  retains  a  distinctively 
Protestant  type  which  not  even  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  with  its  enforced  interruption  of  the  authorized  exer- 
cise of  Reformed  worship  for  more  than  a  century,  has  been 
able  to  efface. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  circumstance  that  the  French 
capital  was  so  far  distant  from  the  Protestant  strongholds  of 
Languedoc,  Gascony,  and  Dauphiny  multiplied  the  obstacles  in 
the  way  of  the  new  king. 

But  there  were  other  facts  which  rendered  his  position  a  per- 
plexing one,  and  which  must  be  understood  by  him  who  would 
comprehend  the  fatal  influences  hurrying  the  new  monarch 
onward  to  the  great  catastrophe  of  his  life  in  the  hypocritical 
renunciation  of  his  religious  faith. 

Certainly  Henry  of  Navarre  had  long  looked  and  longed  for 

the  possession  of  the  crown  of  France  ;  but  if  his  impatience 

had  ever  been  great,  his  regret  was  now  still  greater 

Attitude  of  p    i   •       i  i_     j  \ 

theiatead-  that  the  object  ot  his  hopes  had  come  so  soon.  At 
Henry  the  the  tidings  of  the  death  of  Henry  the  Third,  he 
hastily  took  horse  and  rode  over  from  Meudon  to  St. 
Cloud ;  but  the  sights  and  sounds  that  awaited  him  in  the  room 
where  lay  the  body  of  his  predecessor  were  such  as  might  have 
daunted  even  a  more  courageous  heart  than  his.  At  the  feet 
of  the  corpse  two  friars,  with  lighted  candles,  were  mournfully 
chanting  the  litany  of  the  dead  ;  around  was  a  scene  of  unre- 
strained grief  and  confusion.  No  cries  of  "  Long  life  to  the 
king  ! "  greeted  the  arrival  of  the  Huguenot  prince ;  but  only 


1589.  ACCESSION  OF  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.  169 

murmurs  of  displeasure  were  heard,  curses,  imprecations.  In 
place  of  respectful  homage,  he  saw  Roman  Catholic  leaders — 
such  men  as  the  Sieur  d'O,  his  brother,  Manou,  Entragues, 
and  the  like — draw  down  their  hats  over  their  eyes  in  a  man- 
ner that  boded  no  good,  while  pledging  themselves  to  die  a 
thousand  deaths,  or  to  submit  to  any  one  in  the  world,  rather 
than  suffer  a  Huguenot  king  to  rule  over  them.  It  was  a  try- 
ing time,  and  for  a  moment  even  Henry,  who  hardly  knew 
what  it  was  to  fear  an  enemy  upon  the  battle-field,  was  in  dan- 
ger of  quailing.1  Happily,  among  his  little  company  of  Hu- 
guenot lords,  and  among  the  still  smaller  band  of  really  disin- 
terested and  patriotic  noblemen  professing  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith,  he  had  those  who  could  speak  a  word,  who  could  act, 
in  due  season.  Agrippa  d'Aubigne  nerved  the  arm  of  the 
king,  by  showing  him  the  folly  of  betraying  any  marks  of 
timidity  or  irresolution  to  his  wavering  subjects.  Guitry  in- 
duced  him    to   abandon   as   suicidal   a  plan  hastily 

Good  service  1  " 

rendered  by     formed  of  falling  back  upon  the  Loire.     He  showed 

D'Aubigne,  .  ' °  .  r 

sancy,  and  him  that,  while  he  might  thereby  secure  possession  of 
Tours,  Blois,  and  Angers,  he  would  forfeit  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  hold  which  Henry  the  Third  had  regained  upon 
the  Seine,  the  Oise,  and  the  Marne,  and  virtually  surrender 
Xorthern  France  to  the  enemy.  But  of  all  the  friends  of  the 
Bourbon,  in  this  emergency,  none  was  able  to  confer  upon  him 
so  signal  a  service  as  Sancy,  the  able  negotiator  who  to  the 
credit  he  won,  ten  years  before,  in  connection  with  the  Treaty 
of  Soleure  and  the  protectorate  of  Geneva,  had,  as  we  have 
seen,  just  added  fresh  laurels  by  securing  for  Henry  of  Yalois 
a  large  auxiliary  force  of  Swiss  mercenaries.  It  was  Sancy 
who,  by  his  prompt  action,  and  by  his  convincing  presentation 
of  the  case,  induced  the  Swiss  colonels  to  transfer  their  com- 
mands from  the  service  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Yalois  to  that 
of  the  Protestant  Bourbon.  It  was  Sancy  who  wrought  what 
the  men  of  his  time  esteemed  almost  a  miracle,  by  persuad- 
ing a  body  of  mercenaries,  intent  only  upon  gain,  not  merely  to 


1  Agrippa  cTAubigne's  description  is  in  the  best  vein  of  that  graphic  writer. 
Histoire  universelle,  iii.  183,  etc. 


170      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cji.  XI. 

continue  to  follow  a  penniless  king,  but  actually  to  take  an  oath 
to  serve  him  for  three  months  without  pay — a  thing  the  like  of 
which,  as  the  negotiator  himself  observed  with  pardonable  com- 
placency, was  perhaps  never  seen  among  the  Swiss  pikemen  and 
the  German  reiters.1  But  Sancy  was  not  alone  in  rendering 
sential  help.  Even  before  he  had  had  time  to  bring  to  Henry 
the  welcome  intelligence  of  the  fidelity  of  the  Swiss,  Givry  had 
come  to  announce  that  he  might  count  upon  the  support  of  the 
nobles  of  the  lie  de  France,  and  Ilumieres  and  Auniont  had 
been  the  bearers  of  equally  encouraging  assurances  from  two 
hundred  lords  and  gentlemen  of  Picardy,  and  from  the  power- 
ful leaders  of  the  province  of  Auvergne. 

Meanwhile,  if  the  expedition  of  these  faithful  servants  placed 
the  king  out  of  danger  of  immediate  violence,  the  war  of  in- 
trigue still  went  on.  Some  of  the  most  loyal  of  the  late  king's 
followers,  like  M.  d'Espeisses,  president  of  the  parliament 
sitting  at  Tours,  were  so  appalled  by  the  gravity  of  the  situa- 
tion, as  actually  to  propose,  as  a  means  of  reconciling  Roman 
Catholics  and  Huguenots,  that  Cardinal  Bourbon  should  he- 
associated  with  his  nephew  in  royal  authority,  alleging  the  in- 
stances of  joint  possession  of  the  imperial  office  among  the  Ro 
mans.2  The  majority  of  the  great  Roman  Catholic  followers 
selfishness  of  Henry  of  Yalois,  taken  completely  by  surprise  at 
and  intrigue,  ^fr  master's  sudden  demise,  talked  violently,  and 
were  agreed  only  upon  one  point — that  they  would  derive  all 
the  private  advantage  possible  from  the  present  needs  of  the 
monarch.  Some,  like  the  dissolute  Monsieur  d'O,  pronounced 
themselves  in  favor  of  excluding  the  heretical  claimant  from 
the    throne,  or  compelling  him   to   abjure    upon    the    instant. 


1  "  Chose  qui  ne  s'estoit  veue  peutestre  jamais  parmy  les  Suisses  et  lea  K  - 
tres."  Extrait  d'un  discours  d'estat  de  M.  de  Sancy,  General  de  Tarn, 
trangere  qu'il  amena  an  Roy  Henry  III.  en  harmce  1589,  printed  in  Memoires 
de  Nevers,  ii.  590-594.  The  whole  account  of  Sancy  i>  extremely  valuah 
fording,  as  it  does,  with  that  given  by  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  the  most  authentic 
statements  respecting  this  critical  period.  See,  also.  Auguste  Poirson,  Histoire 
du  regne  de  Henri  IV.,  i.  22,  etc. 

8  Memoires  de  Madame  de  Mornay  (Edition  of  the  French  Historical  S 
ety),  182,  183  ;  Vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay.  139. 


1589.  ACCESSION    OF    HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.  171 

Others,  of  whom  Marshal  Biron  was  spokesman,  affected  greater 
moderation,  but  were  not  less  dangerous,  for  they  advocated 
delay.  The  cities  of  the  realm,  as  well  as  the  camp  itself, 
they  said,  were  divided  between  Roman  Catholics  and  Hugue- 
nots. The  Roman  Catholics  themselves  were  split  into  two 
factions,  the  royalists  and  the  League.  All  the  great  cities 
and  the  lowest  part  of  the  populace  belonged  to  the  League. 
Should  the  action  of  the  Roman  Catholics  in  the  camp  cut  off 
all  hope  of  future  reunion,  these  would  at  once  throw  them- 
selves into  the  arms  of  Spain.  He  counselled,  therefore,  that 
Henry  of  Xavarre,  until  his  conversion,  be  not  recognized  as 
King  of  France,  but  simply  as  Captain-General,  and  as  such 
receive  the  oaths  of  the  loyal  nobility  there  present.  To  all 
which,  the  reply  made  by  Sancy,  as  spokesman  of  the  patriotic 
party,  was  cogent.  Henry  of  Bourbon,  as  nearest  prince  of 
the  blood,  was  already  king,  having  succeeded  to  the  throne  the 
instant  his  predecessor  died ;  for  France,  being  a  monarchical 
state,  could  no  more  be  without  a  king  than  a  body  could  exist 
without  a  head.  One  could  not  well  render  the  crown  worse 
service  than  by  following  the  marshal's  advice.  What  hope 
would  there  be  of  inducing  others  to  recognize  Henry  as  king, 
if  his  very  followers  should  deny  him  any  higher  title  than  that 
of  captain-general.  Better  would  it  be  that  those  who  were 
determined  upon  such  a  course  should  retire  to  their  homes 
than  that  they  should  refuse  him  the  designation  of  king  until 
such  time  as  he  might  embrace  Roman  Catholicism. 

These  were  good,  sound  arguments,  but  Biron  needed  some- 
thing more  convincing.     He  drew  Sancy  aside  from  the  con- 
ference of  nobles,  in  the  midst  of  which  he  had  spoken,  and 
said  :    "  Until  the  present  moment  I  deemed  you  a  man   of 
sense,  but  now  I  begin  to  lose  that  opinion.     Ho  you 

Marshal  Bi-  _&  .  r  J 

ron'sde-  not  see  that  it,  betore  we  nave  settled  our  matters 
with  the  King  of  Xavarrc,  we  establish  his  affairs  al- 
together, he  will  no  longer  know  or  care  for  us  ?  The  day  has 
come  for  us  to  attend  to  our  own  interests.  If  we  lose  the  op- 
portunity we  shall  never  recover  it,  but  rue  our  error  all  our 
lives."  !Sro  one  could  mistake  the  drift  of  the  marshal's  speech. 
Honest  Sancy,  although  he  could  not  help  expressing  his  own 


1  72     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  XL 

judgment  that  it  would  be  full  time  to  look  after  private  inter- 
ests when  France  should  have  been  rescued  from  present  an- 
archy, delicately  proffered  his  own  services  to  carry  to  the  king 
the  intimation  of  what  Biron  thought  that  he  ought  to  receive 
as  the  guerdon  of  his  fidelity.  The  offer  was  promptly  ac- 
cepted. Henry  the  Fourth  was  in  a  chamber  overhead,  await- 
ing the  issue  of  the  conference ;  Sancy  laid  before  him  Biron's 
demand,  and  in  a  few  minutes  returned  with  his  majesty's  gra- 
cious promise  that  the  marshal  should  be  rewarded  with  the 
County  of  Perigord.1 

So  early  did  Henry  of  Navarre  learn  the  lesson  of  worldly 
wisdom  that,  if  he  would  become  undisputed  king  of  France, 
he  must  buy  his  way  to  the  throne  by  concessions  of  money, 
The  purchase  rank,  or  principle.  Was  there  no  path  that  would 
of  loyalty.  nave  led  him  to  the  same  destination  save  this  ignoble 
one  ?  The  question  is  by  no  means  simple.  I  shall  not  under- 
take to  answer  it  decidedly,  nor  shall  I  venture  to  affirm  that 
the  manly  course  of  Christian  integrity  would  have  been  re- 
warded with  so  complete  a  success  as  that  which  crowned  a  pol- 
icy, consistently  pursued,  of  pliant  and  opportune  yielding  to 
circumstances.  A  man  that  should  have  endeavored  to  convince 
the  ambitious  prince  of  the  propriety  of  clinging  to  principle, 
come  what  might,  would  doubtless  have  lost  his  pains.  To  him 
who  has  fixed  his  mind  upon  the  attainment  of  his  purpose  as 
the  supreme  object  of  life,  considerations  of  morality  have  lost 
the  power  they  possess  over  souls  of  higher  aspirations.  Thus 
much  may,  however,  be  asserted  without  fear  of  contradiction : 
the  system  of  purchase,  upon  which  Henry  the  Fourth  now 
entered,  contained  within  it  the  seeds  of  its  own  perpetuation. 
The  success  of  one  aspirant  was  the  encouragement  of  a  second. 
The  whole  administration  of  government  became  venal.  Mil- 
itary achievements  which  would  have  secured  prompt  submis- 
sion to  a  prince  made  of  sterner  stuff  lost  much  of  their  imme- 
diate effect ;  for  the  unsuccessful  opponent,  if  not  completely 
vanquished,  still  had  the  hope  of  exacting  large  sums  of  money 
as  the  price  of  ultimate  surrender.     The  more  protracted  and 

1  See  Sancy 's  own  account,  Memoires  de  Nevers.  ii.  592,  593. 


1589.  ACCESSION   OF  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.  173 

persistent  the  haggling,  the  better  the  prospect  of  securing  fa- 
vorable terms.  So  it  was  that,  almost  before  he  knew  it, 
Henry  found  himself  launched  upon  a  sea  of  perplexity  from 
which  only  the  most  lavish  grants  of  money  could  extricate  him 
— money,  which  with  him  was  a  scarce  commodity,  to  be  ob- 
tained only  by  burdening  yet  more  a  wretched  people.  From 
the  purchase  of  Biron's  loyalty,  on  the  first  day  of  Henry's 
reign,  to  the  day,  nearly  nine  years  later,1  when  the  Duke  of 
Mercoeur,  last  of  the  Leaguers,  secured  a  favorable  edict,  with 
the  retention  of  all  his  honors,  as  a  reward  for  the  obstinacy 
with  which  he  had  held  out,  the  historian  is  compelled  to 
chronicle  a  long  series  of  discreditable  compacts,  made  in  the 
interest  of  rebellious  princes,  nobles,  and  cities — not  to  speak 
of  the  royal  abjuration  itself,  the  most  immoral  concession  of 
them  all.  Of  the  consequent  taxes  which  the  monarch  was 
compelled  to  lay  upon  the  unfortunate  people  of  France,  the 
contemporary  De  Thou  informs  us  that  they  were  exacted  with 
unprecedented  rigor,  ruining  not  only  the  lower  classes,  but 
even  the  most  honorable  families,  whose  incomes  were  alto- 
gether cut  off  by  the  abject  poverty  into  which  the  common 
people  were  plunged.2 

When,  shortly  after  his  arrival  at  St.  Cloud,  Henry  heard 
d'O's  insolent  demand  that  he  should  instantly  abjure  Protes- 
tantism as  an  indispensable  condition  to  recognition 
to  abjure  in-  as  king,  the  Huguenot  prince  replied  firmly  and 
frankly.  He  remonstrated  against  the  attempt  of 
those  who  would  seize  him  by  the  throat  as  he  took  the  first 
step  to  the  throne,  and  compel  him  to  adopt  a  course  to  which 
it  had  been  found  impossible  to  force  so  many  plain  persons, 
simply  because  they  knew  how  to  die.  "  From  whom  could 
you  expect  such  a  change  in  religious  faith  but  from  one  who 
had  no  faith  ?      Would  you  prefer  a  godless   king  ?     Would 

1  The  edict  in  favor  of  the  Duke  of  Mercoeur  was  accorded  at  Angers, 
March,  1598,  in  the  ninth  year  of  Henry's  reign.  It  forms  the  last  of  the 
documents  of  the  kind  contained  in  a  volume  of  nearly  three  hundred  pages, 
entitled  :  "  Recueil  des  edicts  et  articles  accordez  par  le  Roy  Henry  IV.  pour 
la  reunion  de  ses  suhjets.     Imprime  Tan  de  grace,  1604." 

•-'  De  Thou,  viii.  743,  744. 


174      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn.  XI. 

you  rely  upon  the  troth  of  an  atheist  ?  You  know  how  that 
with  my  mother's  milk  I  imbibed  the  teachings  of  a  religion 
wherein  I  have  been  nurtured  and  brought  up.  You  know 
that  I  have  incurred  all  imaginable  dangers  to  maintain  myself 
in  it,  believing  that  I  could  in  conscience  have  no  other.  But 
as  from  childhood  I  have  been  instructed  in  it.  now  that  I  have 
reached  a  more  advanced  age  and  am  consequently  more  open 
to  conviction,  if  you  will  show  me  that  I  have  more  error  than 
truth,  inasmuch  as  there  is  nothing  I  hold  dearer  than  my  sal- 
vation, I  shall  receive  instruction  in  this  matter  with  more 
readiness  than  I  have  hitherto  maintained  constancy  therein." 

Meanwhile,  the  king's  decision  and  the  wise  counsels  of  the 
better  part  of  his  Roman  Catholic  followers  bore  fruit  in  the 
adoption  and  publication  of  a  document,  which,  it  has  been  re- 
marked,2 must  be  regarded,  not  as  a  contract  beween  the  Prot- 
estant monarch  and  his  subjects  of  another  religion,  but  rather 
as  a  mutual  recognition  of  rights. 

In  the  Declaration  of  St.  Cloud,  signed  two  days  after  his 

accession,  Henry  the  Fourth  pledged  his  faith  and  his  royal 

word    to    maintain    and    conserve    in    its    integrity, 

The  DGclara- 

ttonof  st.  throughout  his  kingdom,  the  Catholic,  Apostolic,  and 
Cloud.  _        &        ,.    .  °,  .  ,  '.    r 

Koman  religion,  and  to  introduce  no  innovations  or 

changes  in  its  worship  or  government.  lie  renewed  the  state- 
ment, made  in  his  public  declaration  before  the  death  of  his 
predecessor,  that  he  desired  above  all  things  to  be  instructed  by 
a  good,  legitimate,  and  free  council,  and  that  he  would  abide 
by  its  conclusions.  He  promised,  therefore,  within  six  months, 
or  earlier,  if  possible,  to  convene  such  a  council ;  and  meanwhile 
to  permit  no  exercises  of  any  other  religion  than  the  Roman 
Catholic  beyond  the  places  where  they  were  now  held,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  articles  of  the  truce  granted  by  Henry  the 
Third  in  the  month  of  April  past,  until  it  might  be  otherwise 


1  Agrippa  d'Aubigne  and  the  Duke  of  Angouleme  (at  this  time  as  yet  only 
Count  of  Auvergne — see  above,  chapter  x.,  p.  159,  note),  seem  both  to  have  been 
present.  I  combine  their  accounts  of  Henry's  speech.  Histoire  universelle, 
iii.  186  ;  Memoires  du  Due  d'Angoulesme,  Petitot  Collection,  541. 

2  By  M.  Auguste  Poirson. 


1589.  ACCESSION   OF   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.  175 

determined  in  a  general  pacification  of  the  kingdom,  or  by  the 
states  general  to  be  held  within  the  ensuing  six  months.  He 
engaged  to  intrust  to  the  hands  of  Roman  Catholics  all  the 
places  that  might  be  captured,  save  as  his  predecessor  had  re- 
served for  the  Protestants  one  town  in  each  bailiwick  and  sene- 
chaussee.  He  agreed  to  fill  vacancies  with  adherents  of  the 
established  church,  to  maintain  in  office  all  the  present  incum- 
bents, and  to  visit  upon  the  guilty  exemplary  punishment  for 
the  murder  of  the  late  king. 

This  document  was  followed  by  a  second  declaration  on  the 
part  of  the  princes  and  other  noblemen  and  gentlemen,  faith- 
ful servants  of  Henry  the  Third,  "  whom  may  God  absolve," 
formally  recognizing  Henry  the  Fourth  as  King  of  France  and 
Xavarre,  and  pledging  him  their  service  and  obedience,  upon 
the  promise  and  oath  by  him  above  written.  Besides  which, 
they  humbly  begged  his  majesty  to  permit  them  to  send  an 
envoy  to  Rome,  to  explain  to  the  pope  the  motives  that  act- 
uated them  in  entering  into  these  engagements,  and  to  obtain 
his  advice. 

The  first  document  bore  the  signature  of  Henry,  authenti- 
cated by  that  of  his  secretary,  Ruze  ;  the  other  was  signed  by 
the  Prince  of  Conty,  by  the  Dukes  of  Montpensier,  Longueville, 
Piney,  and  Montbazon,  by  Marshals  Biron  and  Aumont,  and 
by  many  others.1 

The  joint  paper  was  admirably  suited  to  accomplish  the  ob- 
ject in  view.  Whatever  doubts  might  previously  have  existed 
Ample  guar-  hi  the  mind  of  any  candid  and  dispassionate  Roman 
itomeanfcrath-e  Catholic  respecting  Henry's  intentions,  there  was  no 
ohc  religion.  ]onger  r00m  for  uncertainty.  He  had  distinctly  re- 
peated the  assurances  given,  a  few  months  earlier,  in  his  solemn 
appeal,  issued  at  Chatellerault,  to  the  three  orders  of  the  king- 
dom. He  fulfilled  the  engagement  there  entered  into,  to  take 
the  Roman  Catholic  religion  under  his  protection.     He  even 


1  Declaration  du  roy  Henry  IV.,  St.  Cloud,  August  4,  1589.  Text  in  Me- 
moires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  iv.  381-383,  and  Lettres  missives,  viii.  357-359. 
See,  also,  De  Thou,  vii.  534  ;  Davila,  410  ;  Recueil  des  choses  memorables. 
705  ;  Lestoile,  ii.  6. 


176      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn.  XL 

consented  that  the  exercises  of  the  Protestant  worship  should 
be  restricted  to  the  places  in  which  they  were  authorized  by  the 
terms  of  the  truce  made  by  Henry  the  Third.  Kay,  more,  he 
repeated  his  offer,  so  frequently  made  in  the  past,  to  receive 
instruction  from  a  council  of  the  church  duly  convened,  and  to 
submit  to  its  decisions.  What  more  could  any  reasonable  man 
ask  in  the  way  of  guarantees  for  the  protection  and  free  action 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  ?  Xothing,  certainly.  And  ac- 
cordingly every  impartial  adherent  of  that  church,  from  Hen- 
ry's contemporaries  down  to  his  latest  historian  in  our  own 
times,  has  regarded  the  Declaration  of  St.  Cloud  as  removing 
the  last  vestige  of  excuse  from  those  who,  under  color  of  con- 
scientious scruples,  still  persisted  in  their  refusal  to  acknowledge 
the  authority  of  the  new  occupant  of  the  throne.  It  is  true 
that  one  great  nobleman  of  Henry  the  Third's  suite,  his  former 
minion,  the  Duke  of  Epernon,  refused  to  append  his 

Discontent  of  r .  '  r  \ 

the  Duke  of     signature  to  the  declaration,  and  weakened  the  royal 

Epernon.  .   .  .  .   ,    .  . 

army,  at  this  inopportune  moment,  by  withdrawing 
from  the  camp  to  Angouleme,  followed  by  his  retainers,  a  body 
of  twelve  hundred  horse  and  six  thousand  foot,  and  by  assum- 
ing in  the  province  of  which  he  was  governor  a  sort  of  armed 
neutrality.  But,  although  the  duke  had  religion  upon  his  lips, 
men  needed  not  to  be  informed  that  the  true  motive  was  dis- 
appointed ambition.  He  had  not  been  permitted  to  sign  the 
document  before  the  marshals,  and  it  was  not  likely  that  he 
would  fare  better  in  the  matter  of  precedence  upon  the  field  of 
battle.1 

Whatever  disapproval  the  Declaration  of  St.  Cloud  might 
incur  would  naturally  have  been  expected  to  come  from  the 

king's  former  companions  in  arms,  the  Huguenots. 

Advice  of  mi  i  ti  r     i  • 

Dupiessis  lhe  document  was  not,  like  so  many  01  the  most  im- 
portant papers  to  wdiich  Henry's  signature  was  affixed, 
from  the  pen  of  Dupiessis  Mornay.  That  skilful  writer  and 
judicious  counsellor  was,  at  the  time,  lying  ill  in  the  city  of 
Saumur.  But  how  fully  the  declaration  must  have  commended 
itself  to  him,  and  to  all  the  more  prudent  and  sensible  among 

1  De  Thou,  vii.  537. 


1589.  ACCESSION   OF   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.  177 

the  Protestants,  appears  from  a  long  memorial  which  he  wrote 
to  Henry  the  Fourth  immediately  upon  hearing  of  the  fatal 
effect  of  Jacques  Clement's  blow.  In  view  of  the  natural  alarm 
of  the  Roman  Catholics  at  the  accession  of  a  Huguenot  to  the 
throne  of  France,  Duplessis  Mornay  recommended  Henry  to 
publish  just  such  a  declaration  as,  in  point  of  fact,  his  majesty 
had  sent  forth  before  the  receipt  of  this  communication,  assur- 
ing them  that  no  innovation  would  be  made  to  the  disadvan- 
tage  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  At  the  same  time  the 
king  must  be  careful  not  to  displease  the  Protestants  by  fol- 
lowing the  practice  of  his  predecessors  in  designating  them  as 
"  ceux  de  la  religion  pretendue  reformee."  Let  the  name  be 
rather  "la  religion  que  nous  disons  reformee,"  or,  "dicte  re- 
formee." If,  as  is  reasonable,  the  Protestants  ask  for  greater 
liberty,  let  it  be  by  petition  of  the  chief  men  in  each  province, 
founding  the  demand  upon  preceding  royal  edicts  that  have 
been  contravened  through  the  violence  of  the  League.  Mean- 
while, let  the  king  write  to  all  the  churches,  and  to  the  govern- 
ors of  places  now  in  Protestant  hands,  urging  upon  them  both 
to  exercise  greater  moderation  than  ever,  and  to  restrain  the 
popular  insolence  ;  and  let  the  regulations  heretofore  adopted 
for  the  protection  of  churches,  relics,  and  public  worship  be 
more  scrupulously  observed  than  in  the  past.1 

It  must,  nevertheless,  be  noticed  that  the  moderation  of 
Henry  the  Fourth,  however  perfectly  it  might  commend  itself 
Many  of  the  to  the  independent  judgment  of  Duplessis  Mornay, 
SSl  by  no  means  satisfied  a  very  considerable  part — per- 
haps constituting  a  majority  of  the  Huguenot  popu- 
lation of  France.  The  publication  of  the  declaration  wTas  the 
signal  for  the  departure  of  not  a  few  of  Henry's  own  followers. 
The  loss  was  a  sensible  one,  even  if  we  abate  somewhat  from 
the  statement  of  the  Duke  of  Angouleme  that  the  Protestant 
deserters  were  as  numerous  as  the  Roman  Catholic.2     And  as 


1  "  Memoire  des  affaires  generaulx  pour  le  service  de  sa  majesty,  tant  dedans 
que  dehors  le  royaume,  qui  lui  feut  envoye  par  M.  Duplessis  apres  la  mort  du 
roy  Henry  III.,"  in  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  iv.  393-398. 

2  Memoires  du  Due  d'Angoulesnie,  542. 

V©l.  II.— 12 


ITS      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XI. 

time  passed  on,  and  as  rumors  were  circulated  of  secret  assur- 
ances given  by  the  king  conflicting  somewhat  with  his  public 
announcements,1  the  discontent  became  wide-spread  through- 
out Protestant  France.  In  Poitou  and  Saintonge  the  murmurs 
were  particularly  loud.  The  Huguenots  complained  that,  in 
gaining  a  king,  they  had  lost  their  "  protector ; "  that  Henry 
in  his  very  "  Declaration  "  had  lapsed  into  the  use  of  a  dis- 
tinctively Romish  formula,  having  employed  after  the  name  of 
Henry  the  Third  the  words  "  que  Dieu  absolve  ; ?'  that  he  seemed 
to  have  lost  all  remembrance  of  the  churches  of  his  own  faith  ; 
that  in  divers  places  Protestants  were  left  to  endure  the  same 
annoyances  and  oppression  as  before  ;  in  a  word,  that  their 
condition  was  no  better  than  under  the  previous  king,  if,  in- 
deed, it  was  not  actually  worse. 

Such  were  some  of  the  grievances  alleged  by  the  Huguenot.-, 
as  reported  in  the  correspondence  of  Duplessis  Mornay  with 
Henry  vindi-  his  royal  master.  It  may  not,  therefore,  be  amiss  to 
cateshimseii  ariticipate  somewhat  the  order  of  events,  and,  in  jus- 
tice to  the  monarch,  to  glance  at  the  vindication  of  his  course 
which,  about  three  months  later  than  the  events  now  under 
consideration,  he  wrote  with  his  own  hand  in  the  form  of  an 
open  letter  to  his  trusty  Protestant  servant. 

"  For  a  month  past,"  says  Henry,  "  there  have  been  rumors 
of  a  movement  set  on  foot,  in  a  colloquy  held  at  St.  Jean 
d' Angel y,  tending  to  the  election  of  a  new  protector  of  our 
churches.  The  movement  was  based  on  an  alleged  uncertainty 
with  regard  to  my  perseverance  in  the  Protestant  religion. 
There  are  malcontents  who  make  use  of  every  artifice  in  their 
power  to  seduce  our  churches  of  these  parts.  You  know  what 
a  plot  was  concocted  underhand  in  the  last  assembly  held  at 
La  Rochelle.  These  men  think  that  they  have  now  found  the 
right  opportunity,  by  an  examination  of  my  actions,  to  accuse 
me  of  inconstancy  and,  under  this  pretext,  to  attain  their  ends. 
I  write  not  because  you  have  not  heard  of  these  matters,  but  I 
beg  you,  as  one  acquainted  with  the  past,  and  able  to  vouch  for 
my  determination  as  fully  as  any  one  else,  to  notify  the  churches 

1  See  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  217. 


1589.  ACCESSION   OF  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.  170 

and  all  others  whom  you  may,  that  such  proceedings  are  unlaw- 
ful, and  full  of  calumny  and  falsehood." 

After  this  exordium,  here  somewhat  abridged,  Henry  pro- 
ceeded to  the  history  of  the  declaration,  in  which  he  had  had 
for  his  counsellors  such  men  as  Chatillon,  La  None,  Beauvoir  la 
Jsocle,  and  Guitry.  lie  declared  that  he  had  himself  erased 
from  the  original  draft  of  the  document  the  objectionable 
words,  "  que  Dieu  absolve,"  and  that  he  was  not  responsible 
for  their  reinsertion  in  any  copies.  Then,  after  noticing  the 
other  accusations  brought  against  him,  as  a  ground  for  the  at- 
tempt to  choose  in  his  place  a  new  protector  of  the  Protestant 
churches,  he  expressed  his  curiosity  to  know  the  person  that 
could  be  found  for  that  office  who  had  exposed  to  danger  his 
life,  his  property,  and  the  fruits  of  his  toil,  so  often  as  had 
Henry  of  Xavarre.  As  to  a  change  of  religion,  he  thanked 
God  that  thus  far  he  had  remained  steadfast  in  the  faith.  "  I 
have  never  intermitted  the  exercise  of  the  Protestant  religion," 
said  he,  "  in  any  place  where  I  have  been.  To  such  a  degree 
is  this  true,  that  there  were  single  weeks  in  the  course  of 
which  seven  sermons  were  delivered  at  Dieppe  by  Monsieur 
d' Amours.  Was  this  to  give  any  indication  of  my  purpose  to 
change  my  religion  ?  "  l 

Meantime,  the  joy  that  filled  the  hearts  of  the  adherents 
of  the  League  in  Paris,  in  consequence  of  the  success  of  the 
The  memory  murderous  scheme  of  Madame  de  Montpensier  and 
ciementhon-  Jacques  Clement,  exceeded  all  bounds.  The  assassin 
at  Pans,  jj^g^f  was  exalted  to  the  position  of  a  martyr  in 
the  cause  of  religion.  But  a  day  or  two  passed  before  his  por- 
trait was  to  be  found,  painted  or  in  relief,  adorning  the  walls 
of  private  houses,  and  even  of  the  churches.     Those  fortunate 


1  "  N'ai  poinct  interims  l'exercise  de  la  relligion  partout  ou  j'ai  este,  telle- 
ment  que  telle  sepmaine  sept  presclies  se  sont  faicts  a  Dieppe  par  le  sieur 
d' Amours.  Est-ce  de  la  donner  argument  ou  indice  de  cliangement  ?  " 
Henry  IV.  to  Duplessis  Mornay,  Etampes,  November  7,  1589,  in  Memoires  de 
Duplessis  Mornay,  iv.  426-430,  and  Lettres  missives,  iii.  70-73.  It  is  only 
fair  to  state  that  the  editor  of  the  latter  collection,  M.  Berger  de  Xivrey,  was 
unable  to  discover  any  copy  of  the  royal  Declaration  of  St.  Cloud  containing 
the  words,  "  que  Dieu  absolve."     Ibid.,  iii.  71,  note. 


180      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cii.  XI. 

persons  who  could  show  that  they  were  his  kinsmen  became 
the  surprised  recipients  of  public  contributions  of  money.1 
The  League  threw  off  its  habiliments  of  mourning,  worn  since 
Guise's  death,  and  decked  itself  in  bright  colors,  as  a  token  of 
rejoicing  at  the  death  of  the  tyrant.  The  Duke  of  Mayenne, 
though  pressed  to  assume  the  crown,  was  shrewd  enough  to  see 
that   his   hour  had  not  yet  come,   and   declined  an 

Cardinal  i«i  iti  i    •  • 

Bourbon  pro-  empty  honor  which  would  have  cost  him  the  inend- 

claimed  king.  .  .  n        ,  TT  . 

snip  and  support  oi  opam.  He  was  content  to  have 
the  old  Cardinal  of  Bourbon  proclaimed  king  of  France,  under 
the  title  of  Charles  the  Tenth,  and,  since  the  prelate  was  a 
prisoner,  carefully  guarded,  by  his  royal  nephew's  orders,  in  the 
castle  of  Chinon,2  himself  to  discharge  the  real  functions  of  sov- 
ereignty, in  the  capacity  of  Lieutenant-General  of  the  State  and 
Crown  of  France.3  Nor  did  the  adherents  of  the  League  in  some 
other  parts  of  the  country  suffer  the  capital  to  outdo  them  in 
ferocious  glee.  The  Parliament  of  Toulouse,  in  particular,  dis- 
tinguished itself  by  issuing  an  order  calling  upon  all 

Decreeofthe  &  e        i  •  a  i_        1 

Parliament     persons,  or  whatsoever  station,  to  render  thanks  in 

of  Toulouse.  .  '  i  ^  r  ^         r  i  it 

their  respective  churches  lor  the  lavor  shown  by  the 
Almighty  to  France  in  the  deliverance  of  Paris  and  the  cities 
of  the  realm  ;  and,  lest  there  should  be  any  misapprehension  of 
its  meaning,  proceeded  to  command  that  every  year,  on  the 
first  day  of  August,  processions  and  public  prayers  be  made 
in  token  of  gratitude  for  the  benefits  received  upon  that  day.4 


1  Matthieu,  Histoire  des  demiers  troubles,  ii.  fol.  9. 

2  Duplessis  Mornay,  shortly  after  this,  succeeded  in  persuading  M.  and 
Madame  de  Chavigny,  in  whose  care  the  captive  had  been  placed  by  Henry 
III.,  to  surrender  the  prelate  into  his  hands.  Cardinal  Bourbon  was  then 
transferred  to  the  keeping  of  La  Boulaye  and  Parabere,  who  conducted  the 
prelate  to  Maillezais,  and  thence  to  Fontenay  le  Comte,  in  Poitou.  The  re- 
ceipt of  the  new  jailers  for  the  cardinal's  person  is  given  in  the  Menioires  de 
Duplessis  Mornay,  iv.  408,  409.  It  is  dated  September  4,  1589.  Cardinal 
Bourbon  did  not  long  survive,  since  he  died  at  Fontenay,  May  8,  1590.  Les- 
toile,  ii.  16. 

3 Matthieu,  Histoire  des  derniers  troubles,  ubi  supra;  Lestoile,  ii.  10. 

4  Arrest  de  la  Court  de  Parlement  de  Tholose,  contre  Henri  de  Bourbon,  pre- 
tendu  Roy  de  Navarre,  et  ses  adheraus,  August  22,  1589.  Memoires  de  la 
Ligue,  iv.  51. 


1589.  ACCESSION   OF  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.  181 

The  judges  renewed  their  declaration  that  Henry  of  Bourbon 
was  incapable  of  succeeding  to  the  throne  of  France. 

Altogether  different  was  the  attitude  of  the  less  bigoted  Par- 
liament of  Bordeaux,  under  the  prudent  suggestions  of  Mar- 
shal Matignon.     It  did  not  go  to  the  length  of  recognizing 
the  authority  of  Henry  the  Fourth,  and,  in  fact,  en- 

The  Parlia-  "  " 

mentofBor-  joined  the  strict  observance  of  the  so-called  Edicts 
of  Union ;  but  instead  of  testifying  their  joy  at  the 
murder  of  Henry  the  Third  as  "  miraculous,"  after  the  fashion 
of  Toulouse,  the  judges  of  Bordeaux  deplored  it  as  "  sad  and 
lamentable,"  and  exhorted  all  the  ecclesiastics,  from  the  arch- 
bishop down,  to  offer  prayers  to  God  for  the  soul  of  the  de- 
ceased monarch.1 

Meanwhile,  with  forces  much  diminished  by  defections  both 
of  Bom  an  Catholics  and  Protestants,  Henry  the  Fourth  found 
Henry's  him  self  impotent  to  carry  the  siege  of  Paris  to  a 
Se^and  successful  termination.  The  lack  of  men  was  not 
ammunition.    hig  sole  difficulty>     0f  ammunition  he  had  a  scanty 

store ;  of  ready  money  he  was  almost  destitute.  Therefore, 
making  a  virtue  of  necessity,  he  granted  leave  of  absence  to 
the  nobles  of  Guyenne,  Poitou,  and  other  distant  quarters, 
who,  even  before  the  catastrophe  of  St.  Cloud,  had  requested 
permission  to  revisit  their  homes.  Meantime,  he  despatched 
the  Duke  of  Longueville  to  Picardy,  and  Marshal  d'Anmont 
to  Champagne,  with  what  troops  he  could  spare,  and  with  in- 
junctions to  rally  as  speedily  as  possible  such  cavaliers  as  could 
be  induced  to  return  to  the  field.  He  himself  took  another 
direction.  The  duty  of  escorting  the  remains  of  Henry  of  Ya- 
lois  to  Compiegne — the  Parisians  would  not  have  tolerated  the 
interment  of  the  "tyrant "in  the  crypt  of  the  abbey  church 
of  St.  Denis — afforded  a  decent  excuse  for  the  with- 

Henry 

marches  into  drawal  of  the  royal  army  from  the  neighborhood  of 

Normandy.  "  "  ° 

the  capital.  From  Compiegne  Henry  directed  his 
course  toward  Normandy,  expecting  on  the  shores  of  the  Brit- 
ish Channel  to  welcome  the  force  which  Queen  Elizabeth  had 


1  Arrest  de  la  Court  de  Parlement  de  Bourdeaux,  August  19,  1589.    Ibid., 
iv.  49. 


182      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XI. 

promised  to  send  to  his  relief.  His  following  amounted  barely 
to  twelve  hundred  horse,  three  thousand  French  foot-soldiers, 
and  two  regiments  of  Swiss.  So  scanty  an  army,  though  it 
might  lead  Pont  de  l'Arche  to  surrender,  Dieppe  to  open  its 
gates,  and  the  Huguenots  of  Caen  to  assume  new  courage,  could 
scarcely  be  expected  to  perform  any  notable  action,  and  itself 
offered  a  tempting  object  of  attack  to  the  enemy.  So  at  least 
thought  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  who,  at  the  urgent  call  of  the 
burghers  of  Rouen,  fearful  for  their  own  safety,  issued  from 
the  capital  at  the  head  of  three  thousand  horse  and  fifteen 
thousand  foot.  He  had  assured  the  credulous  Parisians  that 
he  would,  at  one  stroke,  put  an  end  to  the  war  ;  that  soon  they 
would  see  him  returning  in  triumph,  with  the  Bearnais  for  his 
prisoner,  tied  hand  and  foot.1 

The  undertaking  was  not,  however,  so  easy  as  the  lively  im- 
agination of  the  duke  had  pictured  it.  On  learning  the  ap- 
The  conflicts  proach  of  his  enemy,  Henry  had  taken  an  advantage- 
atArques.  oug  pOSition  on  the  banks  of  the  little  river  Bethune, 
with  the  friendly  town  of  Dieppe  two  leagues  in  his  rear.  He 
seized  the  village  of  Arques,  and  employed  his  men  to  such 
good  purpose  that  in  three  days  his  position  was  everywhere 
protected  by  a  ditch  at  no  place  less  than  seven  or  eight  feet  in 
depth.  In  vain  did  the  duke,  with  superior  forces,  attempt  to 
dislodge  him.  Although  the  point  of  attack  was  more  than 
once  changed,  and  the  mode  of  warfare  varied  from  the  simple 
use  of  artillery  to  the  more  exciting  and  perilous  encounter  in 
hand-to-hand  combat,  the  Huguenots  did  not  flinch.  Nor  were 
the  Swiss  less  brave.  It  was  the  fortune  of  the  mountaineers 
of  the  Alps,  on  this  occasion  as  on  others,  to  be  represented  by 
their  soldiers  on  the  side  of  the  Protestant  king  as  well  as  in 
the  army  of  his  opponents  ;  but  the  men  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic canton  of  Soleure,  fighting  under  the  banners  of  Henry, 
had  the  reputation  of  surpassing  in  valor  their  countrymen  who 


1  "  Vray  et  sommaire  discours  de  ce  qui  s'est  passe  en  1'armce  couduite  par 
sa  Majeste  Treschrestienne,  depuis  son  advenement  a  la  Couronne  jusques  a 
la  fin  de  Tan  1589,"  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  53-79  ;  Recueil  des  choses 
memorables,  707  ;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  217. 


1589.  ACCESSION   OF  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.  183 

fought  in  the  ranks  of  the  League.  The  Germans  earned  few 
laurels.  A  body  of  reiters  in  the  service  of  the  Duke  of  Mayenne 
not  only  played  the  traitors  by  making  overtures  to  pass  over  to 
the  royalist  side,  but,  subsequently,  thinking  that  they  had  com- 
mitted a  blunder,  and  that  the  king  was  likely,  after  all,  to  prove 
the  poorer  master,  betrayed  him  in  turn,  and  went  back  to  the 
service  of  the  Duke  of  Mayenne.  Three  standards  which  they 
captured  were  the  only  trophies  won  by  Mayenne.  Even  this 
small  number,  however,  was  turned  to  good  account.  Accom- 
panied by  fifteen  or  more  banners  of  the  same  general  appear- 
ance, hastily  prepared  to  order  by  the  direction  of  the  Duchess 
of  Montpensier,  the  flags  were  soon  after  displayed  at  Paris, 
where  they  served  the  purpose  of  convincing  the  populace  of 
that  city  that  if  Henry  had  thus  far  neither  been  driven  into 
the  sea  nor  captured,  he  yet  had  experienced  an  overwhelming 
defeat.  The  fraud  was  so  successful  that  it  was  destined  to  be 
repeated  on  other  occasions,  though  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
the  results  in  the  end  paid  for  the  misdirected  ingenuity  dis- 
played. However  this  may  be,  after  a  series  of  engagements, 
lasting  through  more  than  ten  days  from  first  to  last,  the  Duke 
of  Mayenne  drew  off  his  army  in  the  direction  of  Picardy,  os- 
tensibly with  the  view  of  seizing  certains  towns  which  he  was 
bound  by  treaty  to  place  in  the  hands  of  the  Spaniard.1 

Upon  the  Huguenot  king  the  repulse  of  so  greatly  superior 
an  army  conferred  all  the  advantages  that  would  have  been  de- 
Henry  returns  rived  from  a  victory  in  the  open  field.  Henry  was, 
toward  Paris.  ]10wever?  not  COntent  with  the  glory  of  the  action,  but 
resolved  to  strike  a  blow  that  might  undeceive  the  credulous 
denizens  of  the  capital.  So  it  was  that,  late  in  the  month  of 
October,  having  called  in  the  divisions  of  the  Duke  of  Longue- 
ville  and  Marshal  d'Aumont,  and  with  an  army  re-enforced  by 


1  See  the  detailed  "  Vray  et  sommaire  discours,"  ubi  supra;  Recueil  des 
choses  memorables,  708-710;  Memoires  de  Sully,  c.  28;  Agrippa  dAubigne, 
Davila,  etc.  The  Duke  of  Mayenne  brought  his  forces  before  Arques  on  Wed- 
nesday, September  13th,  and  broke  up  his  camp  at  midnight  on  Sunday,  the 
24th  of  the  same  month.  It  was  only,  however,  to  make  a  circuit  and  return 
to  the  attack  at  another  point,  nearer  Dieppe,  on  Tuesday,  the  26th.  He  finally 
retreated  on  Thursday,  October  5th.     De  Thou,  vii.  550. 


184      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XL 

the  addition  of  four  thousand  Englishmen  sent  to  him  by  Queen 
Elizabeth,  under  the  command  of  Lord  Willoughby,1  the  king 
again  turned  his  face  toward  the  heart  of  the  realm.  From 
Dieppe  to  Meulan  his  course  lay  north  of  the  Seine,  but  no 
enemy  dared  oppose  his  progress.  Then  crossing  the  river,  he 
pushed  on  to  the  vicinity  of  Paris.  The  last  day  of  the  month 
saw  him  in  possession  of  the  little  village  of  Bagneux,  scarcely 
more  than  a  league  south  of  the  walls  of  Paris,  while  his 
troops  were  quartered  in  the  neighboring  villages  of  Montrouge, 
Gentilly,  Issy,  and  Yaugirard — places  which  the  great  metrop- 
olis, in  its  rapid  extension,  has,  within  our  own  times,  either 
actually  absorbed  within  the  network  of  its  almost  endless 
streets,  or,  at  least,  environed  with  its  frowning  forts.  The 
same  prince  who,  a  little  over  two  months  before,  had  left  St. 
Cloud  and  Meudon  penniless,  and  with  a  diminutive  army,  was 
back  again,  flushed  with  success,  accompanied  by  a  respecta- 
ble force,  and  able  to  pay  his  way.  Thanks  to  the  generosity 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  Henry,  who  never  remembered  to  have 
had  a  full  exchequer,  could  boast  the  possession  of  over  twenty 

1  De  Thou  (vii.  551)  makes  the  commander  to  have  been  Roger  Williams ; 
but  Hume  (History  of  England,  chapter  xliii.)  is  correct  in  stating  that  it  was 
Lord  Willoughby.  In  the  "  Memoires  des  sommes  de  deniers  que  la  Reyne 
d'Angleterre  aprestez  ou  desboursez  pour  le  Roy  Treschrestien,"  submitted  to 
Henry's  council,  May  21,  1599,  O.  S.,  is  the  item  :  "  1589.  Desbourse  pour  la 
despense  et  transport  des  soldatz  envoyez  au  secours  du  Roy  subs  la  conduicte 
du  Baron  de  Willoughby.  Lib.  Sterl.  6,000.  Scud.  Franc.  20,000."  Ed- 
mund Sawyer,  Memorials  of  Affairs  of  State,  i.  29.  It  will  be  seen  that  the 
French  ecu,  or  crown,  is  here  reckoned  as  the  equivalent  of  six  shillings  ster- 
ling. As  the  lure  was,  at  this  time,  worth  one-third  of  the  ecu,  its  equivalent 
was  two  shillings.  The  debasement  of  the  circulating  medium,  it  is  well 
known,  was  much  greater  in  France  than  in  England.  In  the  early  part  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  a  pound  or  livre,  in  both  countries,  represented  a  full 
pound's  weight  of  pure  silver.  In  England,  by  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
a  pound  of  silver  had  come  to  be  coined  into  just  three  pounds  sterling,  or 
sixty  shillings.  Since  Elizabeth's  reign,  the  further  decline  has  been  very 
slight,  the  same  quantity  of  the  precious  metal  now  producing  a  trifle  over 
sixty-six  shillings.  But  in  France,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  sev- 
enty-eight livres,  or  nominal  pounds  of  account,  were  coined  from  a  single 
pound  of  silver !  The  depreciation  of  the  currency  had  not  advanced  quite 
so  far  as  this  in  the  sixteenth  century  ;  for  a  livre  of  the  reign  of  Charles  IX 
was  worth  nearly  three  of  the  livres  of  Louis  XVI. 


1580.  ACCESSION   OF   HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.  1S5 

thousand  pounds  sterling.     It  was,  lie  said,  a  greater  sum  than 
he  had  ever  before  seen.1 

And  now  was  the  king  able  to  deal  a  blow  that  tilled  the 
hearts  of  his  enemies  with  terror.  Early  the  next  morning, 
successful  under  cover  of  a  thick  fog  that  seemed  to  have  come 
tSTrouthSn  up  purposely  to  conceal  the  advance  of  the  royalists, 
suburbs.  ^q  Parisians  learned,  to  their  surprise,  that  Henry 
was  assaulting  the  faubourgs  or  suburbs  of  their  city  with  irre- 
sistible fury.  Each  of  the  three  divisions  into  which  the  king 
had  divided  his  army  carried  consternation  before  it ;  but  it 
was  the  corps  under  Francois  de  la  Koue  and  Coligny's  son 
that  distinguished  itself  most  by  its  valor,  and  executed  the 
greatest  carnage.  The  Huguenot  soldiers,  as  they  approached 
the  scene  of  the  treacherous  massacre  that  had  cost  the  lives  of 
some  of  the  noblest  men  of  whom  France  had  ever  boasted, 
forgot  that  full  seventeen  years  had  elapsed  since  the  ill-fated 
Sunday  of  August,  and  that  they  were  fighting  under  the  ban- 
ner, not  of  the  great  admiral  himself,  but  of  his  eldest  son. 
They  only  remembered  that  it  was  a  Chatillon  who  led  them, 
and  that  their  battle-cry  was  "  Saint  Bartholomew ! "  So  it 
was  that  they  drove  the  enemy  to  the  very  gate,  and  nearly  fol- 
lowed in  with  the  crowd  of  fugitives.  Nor  did  the  hero  of  the 
Iron  Arm  fail  to  make  good  his  reputation  for  impetuous  cour- 
age. On  the  river's  bank,  near  the  spot  where  now  stands  the 
Institut  de  France,  the  southern  circuit  of  the  walls  ended  in 
the  strong  Tour  de  Nesle.  Here,  intent  only  upon  penetrating 
into  the  city,  La  None  threw  himself  into  the  water,  disdaining 
even  to  send  a  single  soldier  before  him,  and  was  recalled  from 
his  hazardous  undertaking  only  by  the  express  command  of  the 
king.  As  it  was,  what  with  the  strength  of  the  current  and 
the  little  use  to  which  his  iron  arm  could  be  put  in  swimming, 
the  Huguenot  captain  incurred  as  much  danger  of  his  life  as 
he  had  encountered  in  a  score  of  battle-fields. 


1  Hume,  History  of  England,  ubi  supra.  The  prudent  queen  took  good  care 
to  have  security  for  her  money.  The  "  Memoire  "  above  quoted  has  the  entry 
of  a  loan  of  £22,350,  made  September  7,  1589,  "  preste  sur  l'obligation  de 
Messieurs  Beauvoir,  Buhy,  et  Buzenval." 


186       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XL 

After  all,  however,  the  destruction  of  some  hundreds  or 
thousands  of  lives  ;  the  plundering  of  a  host  of  houses,  involv- 
ing the  ruin  of  many  a  guiltless  family — this  was  all  the  king 
accomplished.  Even  Sully  could  exclaim  on  this  occasion  :  "  I 
am  weary  of  striking ;  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  kill  any  more 
people  that  do  not  defend  themselves."  Possibly  a  little  more 
expedition  on  the  part  of  the  royalists  in  following  up  Sully 
and  an  adventurous  party  of  fifteen  or  twenty  that  had  actually 
pushed  their  way  within  the  gate  of  Xesle,  or  greater  prompt- 
ness in  bringing  up  the  cannon  to  batter  down  the  gates  else- 
where, might  have  enabled  the  king  to  master  a  part,  or  the 
whole,  of  the  city.  However,  Henry  was  spared  the  perilous 
venture  of  forcing  his  way  in.  The  Duke  of  Mayenne,  hast- 
ening to  the  relief  of  the  endangered  capital,  entered  the  city 
from  the  north  ;  and  the  king,  having  at  least  succeeded  in 
making  a  diversion  in  favor  of  the  loyal  Picard  nobles,  drew  off 
with  an  army  laden  with  plunder.1  lie  had  taken  good  c 
in  the  midst  of  the  attack  made  upon  Paris  on  All  Saints'  Day, 
to  protect  the  Roman  Catholic  churches  and  monasteries  froth 
insult.  If  we  may  credit  the  accounts  that  have  come  down  to 
us,  the  ordinary  services  of  one  of  the  great  ecclesiastical  festi- 
vals not  only  proceeded  unmolested  in  the  midst  of  the  confu- 
sion of  an  army  engaged  in  pillage,  but  were  attended  by  great 
numbers  of  captains  and  soldiers.2  It  was  a  part  of  Henry's 
policy  to  demonstrate  his  honest  intention  to  guarantee  the  un- 
disturbed exercise  of  the  worship  of  the  great  majority  of  his 
subjects.  In  no  better  way  could  he  exhibit  the  unreasona- 
ble character  of  the  fears  entertained  by  the  adherents  of  the 
League. 

There  were  those  to  whom  the  failure  to  make  a  vigorous 
attempt  upon  Paris  was  a  serious  disappointment.  Henry's 
faithful  Huguenot  chaplain  was  of  the  number  of  these.     Ga- 


1  Memoires  de  Sully,  c.  29;  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  710.  711  ;  MY- 
moires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  76,  77  ;  Lestoile,  ii.  7  ;  Davila,  424,  425 ,  De  Thou, 
vii.  551,  552;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  223-225;  Histoire  des  derniers  troub- 
les, ii.  fol.  13. 

2  Davila,  De  Thou,  etc.,  ubi  supra. 


1589.  ACCESSION   OF   HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.  187 

briel  d' Amours,  for  a  full  year  before  the  battle  of  Ivry,  was 
the  king's  constant  attendant  and  spiritual  adviser,  encouraging 
and  admonishing  him  with  all  the  boldness  and  fidelity  of  some 
Hebrew  seer  of  the  olden  time.  When  the  monarch  and  his 
army  were  besieged  at  Dieppe,  twice  did  D' Amours  visit  him, 
early  in  the  morning,  before  he  was  risen  from  bed,  and  exhort 
him  to  put  his  trust  in  God.  "  You  will  yet  come  forth  from 
this  tomb,1'  said  he,  "  and  you  will  give  me  an  opportunity  to 
sing,  in  the  faubourgs  of  Paris,  the  song  of  Simeon  :  ;  Lord, 
now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace.'"  But  when  the 
faubourgs  were  taken,  while  the  king  remembered  distinctly 
enough  the  encouraging  prediction,  D' Amours  saw  plainly  that 
for  some  reason  his  master  was  not  inclined  to  pursue  his  ad- 
vantage and  capture  the  city  now  apparently  within  his  grasp. 
"  Sire,  all  things  are  possible  to  God,  and  nothing  is  impossi- 
ble to  the  believer,"  said  D'Amours.  "  I  do  what  I  can,"  was 
the  only  reply  he  could  elicit  from  Henry.  "  Sire,"  exclaimed 
Gabriel,  in  the  first  sermon  he  preached,  in  the  presence  of  all 
the  gathered  Huguenots,  "  you  would  not  take  Paris  when  God 
gave  it  to  you  ;  one  day  you  wTill  wish  to  take  it  and  God  will 
not  give  it  to  you.  The  fine  army  of  French  gentlemen  which 
you  would  not  use  will  melt  away."  1 

While  the  Huguenot  king,  by  word  and  by  still  more  im- 
pressive acts,  endeavored  to  dispel  all  sincere  apprehension  that 
License  of  might  be  cherished  respecting  his  intentions,  and  while 
he  League.  jie  gave  ^-0  j^g  0lj  ass0ciates  in  arms,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, just  ground  for  complaint  that  the  Roman  Catholics  were 
everywhere  permitted  to  enjoy  privileges  denied,  or  grudgingly 
conceded,  to  the  Protestants,  no  pretence  of  such  moderation 
was  exhibited  upon  the  other  side.     The  League  and  its  follow- 

1  "  Le  premier  presche  que  je  fis  apres,  je  vous  dis  devant  tous,  '  Vous  ne 
l'avez  voulu  prendre  quand  Dieu  la  vous  a  donnee,  vous  la  vouldrez  prendre 
ung  jour  et  il  ne  la  vous  donnera  pas.'  N'aviez-vous  pas  quatre  mil  gentils- 
hommes  fran^ois  devant  Paris,  une  si  belle  et  puissante  armee  laquelle  vous 
fustes  contraint  licencier  apres  la  venue  du  due  de  Parme  ;  ce  que  je  vous 
avoy  predit  en  preschant  vous  advint."  Gabriel  d Amours  to  Henry  IV., 
June  20,  1593,  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de  l'histoire  du  Protestantism e  fran- 
cais,  i.  283. 


188      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn.  XI. 

ers  raved  not  only  against  Protestantism,  but  against  the  royal 
authority,  and  even  against  every  form  of  law  and  decency. 
All  seemed  intent  to  prove  to  the  world  the  truth  of  the  a 
tion  made  years  before  by  the  keen-sighted  pope,  now  in  the  last 
year  of  his  pontificate,  that  there  was  not  a  man  among  them 
who  was  moved  by  a  sincere  desire  for  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  promotion  of  the  true  faith.1  The  personal  jealousies  be- 
tween the  leaders  were  notorious.  The  followers  of  each  nar- 
rowly and  enviously  watched  the  possible  successes  of  all  other 
and  rival  candidates  for  the  first  place.  The  mere  circum- 
stance that  Sixtus  the  Fifth,  in  the  brief  which  he  sent  by  the 
hands  of  Cajetan,  the  new  papal  legate,  made  no  mention  of 
the  Cardinal  of  Bourbon,  was  sufficient  to  alienate  many  of  the 
partisans  of  that  prelate.2  As  if  the  claimants  of  the  throne 
within  the  kingdom,  with  Philip  of  Spain  outside  of  it,  were 
not  enough,  and  more  than  enough,  for  poor  France,  the  Duke 
of  Savoy  deemed  the  proper  moment  to  have  arrived  f<>r  him 
to  put  forward  his  pretensions.     Accordimrlv  he  l<»>t 

The  Duke  of  r .  .  . .         r  .  i 

savoy's  pre-    no  time  in  sending  a  trustv  servant  with  a  mee 

tensions  upon  1         t-»t  i»    t\  i  «  •        •  r    •  i   • 

the  French     to  the  Parliament  or   Dauphin  v,  signifying  hie  re- 
crown.  .  ,         TT-t         *  c   — ,  mi       i 

quest  to  be  recognized  as  Jving  of  r  ranee,  lhe  let- 
ter making  this  modest  suggestion  contained  an  abundance  of 
expressions  of  sorrow  over  the  untimely  death  of  Henry  the 
Third,  and  set  forth,  in  detail,  the  advantages  which  the  g 
Catholics  of  France  would  reap  from  the  accession  of  one,  not 
only  piously  affected,  but  able,  because  of  the  proximity  of  his 
dominions  and  his  military  resources,  supplemented,  if  need  be, 
by  the  resources  of  his  father-in-law,  the  King  of  Spain,  t<> 
make  good  his  claim  by  force  of  arms.  Naturally,  the  duke 
did  not  fail  to  note  the  fact  that,  as  a  first  cousin  of  Henry 
the  Third,  on  his  mother's  side,  he  was  justly  entitled  to  the 
throne ;  that  monarch's  nearest  relatives  having  forfeited  their 
rights  by  obstinate  persistence  in  heresy,  or  by  favoring  here- 


1  See  above,  vol.  i.  chapter  v.  p.  305. 

2De  Thou,  vii.  567,  568.     The  pope's  missive  was  dated  October  ?. 
but  the  legate  did  not  actually  reach  Paris  until  about  the  beginning  of  the 
next  year. 


15S9.  ACCESSION   OF  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.  189 

tics.  The  duke  had  hoped  for  a  kindly  hearing  on  the  part  of 
the  judges,  because  of  the  strong  attachment  of  many  of  their 
number  to  the  ancient  faith,  and  because  of  the  devotion  of  the 
city  of  Grenoble,  where  the  parliament  held  its  sessions,  to  the 
opposition  of  League.  But  these  sensible  magistrates,  while  thank- 
mentof  Gre-  m»  nnu  profusely  for  his  offers,  referred  the  deci- 
nobie.  si011    0f  s0  important  a  matter  to    the    approaching 

states  general.  Meanwhile,  they  begged  him  not  to  think  of 
entering  their  province,  lest  his  coming  might  lead  to  the 
abrupt  termination  of  a  truce  recently  concluded  between 
Ornano  and  Lesdiguieres,  on  behalf  of  the  Roman  Catholics 
and  the  Protestants  respectively.1 

We  have  seen  the  gentleness  with  which  Henry  the  Fourth 

treated  the    Roman    Catholics.     What   usage   the   Huguenots 

might  have  received  at  the  hands  of  Charles  Emman- 

petrated  by     uel,  had  he  succeeded  in  persuading  the  Parliament  of 

the  duke's 

troops  about  Dauphiny  and  the  rest  of  the  Romanists  of  France 
to  receive  him,  appears  from  the  warfare  which  he 
suffered  his  troops  to  wage  against  the  city  of  Geneva  in  the 
months  of  August  and  September,  and  to  renew  in  the  month 
of  May  of  the  following  year.  Of  the  ravages  of  war,  in  towns 
and  villages  plundered  and  then  consigned  to  the  flames,  in 
human  lives  wantonly  destroyed,  history  can  give  the  statistics  ; 
but  there  are  details  the  knowledge  of  which  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  a  full  understanding  of  the  course  of  events,  but 
which  are  too  horrible  to  be  recorded.  Forced  to  choose  be- 
tween leaving  his  readers  in  partial  ignorance  of  the  enormity 
of  the  sins  committed  against  God  in  the  persons  of  the  beings 
created  in  His  image,  and  defiling  his  pages  by  a  disgusting 
catalogue  of  crime,  the  historian  feels  himself  instinctively  com- 
pelled to  prefer  silence  to  a  truthful  but  repulsive  narration. 
Let  those  that  will  satisfy  their  curiosity  on  the  subject  and 
read  for  themselves  the  names  of  the  unfortunate  victims  of 
cruelty  and  lust,  peruse  the  contemporary  treatises  in  which 
they  are  set  forth  with  painful  minuteness.  Suffice  it,  for  our 
purposes,  to  say  that  in  the  fourscore  villages  that  fell  beneath 

1  De  Thou,  vii.  579,  580. 


1 90      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cu.  XL 

the  power  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  neither  age  nor  sex  was  re- 
spected, and  that  in  the  light  of  the  magnitude  of  the  atrocities 
perpetrated,  death  itself  seemed  the  most  tolerable  of  misfor- 
tunes.1 

And  what  the  Duke  of  Savoy's  troops  did  about  Geneva, 
other  troops  in  the  service  of  the  League  did  in  France  itself, 
insults  of-  ^ne  lansquenets  who  escorted  Cardinal  Cajetan  from 
iSate^syeshe  Dijon  to  Paris  thought  themselves,  by  reason  of  that 
cort.  very  fact,  relieved  of  all  moral  obligations.     "It  is 

impossible  to  express  the  excesses  they  committed  along  the 
whole  way,"  writes  the  Roman  Catholic  De  Thou.  "  The 
very  churches  were  not  sheltered  from  their  insults.  Although 
it  was  Lenten-tide,  they  did  not  hesitate  openly  to  eat  meat. 
They  made  a  jest  of  the  matter,  saying  that  they  could  do  so 
with  a  clear  conscience,  since  they  were  bringing  with  them  the 
Pope's  legate.  The  cardinal,  as  they  travelled,  gave  them 
absolution  every  day,  and  opened  to  them  the  treasuries  of 
Heaven." 2  In  fact,  so  far  as  the  armies  of  the  League  were 
concerned,  to  use  the  words  of  the  same  impartial  historian, 
"  all  the  profligate  wretches  that  could  be  found,  all  the  persona 
who  had  reason  to  fear  the  rigor  of  justice,  threw  themselves 
into  the  party  of  the  League,  in  the  hope  of  the  impunity  which 
the  preachers  liberally  promised  them  in  their  sermons/* 

Meanwhile,  the  fortunes  of  the  Huguenot  prince  who.  with 
so  small  a  part  of  France  decidedly  supporting  his  rightful 
singular  sur-  claims  to  the  throne,  never  despaired  of  ultimate  snc- 
catue°ofthe  cess,  were  visibly  improving.  In  distant  Provence, 
Touion.  Bernard  Nogaret  de   Yalette  secured   for    him   two 

or  three  important  places.     Among  these  the  castle  of  Toulon 


1  De  Thou,  vii.  581-584,  has  given  a  brief  account  of  this  shocking  episode 
of  European  history  ;  but  the  reader  must  examine  for  himself  the  "  Discours 
sommaire  de  la  guerre  du  due  de  Savoye  contre  Geneve,''  in  the  Memoires  de 
la  Ligue,  iv.  732-743,  and,  especially,  the  "  Bref  et  vrairecueil  des  horribles 
carnages  perpetres  de  froid  sang  par  l'es  troupes  du  due  de  Savoye.  a  leurs  en- 
trees tant  du  balliage  de  Gez,  que  du  man  dement  de  Gaillard,"  etc.,  ibid.,  iv. 
743-762.  M.  Gaberel,  in  his  excellent  Histoire  de  PEglise  de  Geneve,  has 
reprinted  these  accounts  in  great  part, 

2  De  Thou,  vii.  598.  3  Ibid.,  vii.  587. 


1589.  ACCESSION   OF  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.  191 

was  taken  by  one  of  the  most  singular  of  the  many  remarkable 
devices  resorted  to  in  this  treacherous  period  of  civil  war.  The 
castle  was  held  for  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  but  the  unsuspecting 
commandant  not  only  cultivated  the  acquaintance  of  his  neigh- 
bor, La  Y alette,  but  had  shown  him  over  the  entire  fortifications. 
This  courtesy  emboldened  La  Valette  to  request  permission, 
which  was  readily  granted,  for  a  friend,  one  Montault,  to  en- 
joy the  same  privilege.  Accordingly,  Montault  presented  him- 
self at  the  gate,  accompanied  by  a  score  of  men  with  weapons 
well  concealed  beneath  their  clothes.  This  escort  he  left  just 
without  the  entrance,  ostensibly  to  await  his  return  ;  but  he 
had  himself  gone  only  a  few  steps  into  the  castle,  when,  feign- 
ing a  sudden  illness,  he  fell  at  full  length  upon  the  ground.  At 
the  sight  of  a  man  apparently  in  the  last  agonies  of  death,  the 
castle  guards  forsook  their  post  and  ran  to  his  assistance.  It 
was  the  expected  signal.  The  band  of  royalists  rushed  in. 
Montault  aroused  himself  from  his  assumed  stupor,  and  drew 
out  his  sword.  In  a  few  moments  all  was  over.  The  guards, 
paralyzed  with  astonishment,  were  easily  overpowered,  and  paid 
with  their  lives  the  penalty  of  their  too  great  humanity.  La 
Valette,  who  was  lurking  in  the  vicinity,  was  admitted  with  his 
troops.     The  castle  was  won.1 

Happily,  the  more  essential  gains  were  made  by  Henry  him- 
self and  in  less  reprehensible  ways.  The  king  could  now  afford 
substantial  to  leave  for  a  time  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  cap- 
Henry's  first  ital,  where  he  had  proved  himself  to  be  no  despicable 
ampaign.  £oe^  an(j  j^Qp  to  strengthen  his  cause  elsewhere. 
Turning  southward  and  westward,  he  successively  made  himself 
master  of  Etampes,  of  Chateaudun,  and  of  Vendome,  and  en- 
tered Tours,  the  seat  of  the  loyal  parliament  transferred  from 
Paris,  amid  demonstrations  of  universal  joy.  As  at  Chateaudun 
he  had  received  the  deputies  of  the  Swiss  cantons,  coming  to 
renew  their  league  with  the  French  crown,  so  at  Tours  he  gave 
audience  to  Mocenigo,  the  Venetian  ambassador,  bringing  him 
the  first  recognition  on  the  part  of  a  foreign  state  of  Henry's 
authority  as  King  of  France.     Then  passing  to  the  north,  the 

1  De  Thou,  vii.  584,  585. 


192      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  X' 

important  cities  of  Alencon,  Argentan,  Domfront,  Falaise, 
Lisieux,  Pont-Audemer,  Pont-1'Eveque,  Bayeux,  and  Honfleur 
opened  their  gates,  without  very  serious  opposition,  to  his  tri- 
umphant advance.  Before  many  weeks,  Henry  had  added  to 
his  actual  domain  several  of  the  provinces  of  central  France 
and  a  good  part  of  Kormandy.1 

A  clear  and  vigorous  writer,  whose  history  of  the  reign  of 
Henry  the  Fourth  throws  fresh  light  upon  this  important 
period — Auguste  Poirson — has  made  an  approximate  estimate 
of  the  ground  the  Huguenot  king  had  gained  during  the  few 
months  that  had  elapsed  since  his  accession.  When  the  last 
Valois  prince  had  been  put  out  of  the  way  by  the  dagger  of 
Jacques  Clement,  his  successor's  claims  to  the  throne  were 
recognized  by  barely  one-sixth  part  of  France.  It  is  true  that 
it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  all  the  remainder  held 
for  the  League.  Yet,  even  with  the  addition  of  such  neutral 
cities  and  territories  as  Bordeaux  and  Guyenne,  which  still  af- 
fected to  use  the  name  and  the  seal  of  the  deceased  monarch 
as  in  an   interregnum,   only  about   one-half  of   the 

Division  of  .  _     .  _      _     ,  .  r     i         t   • 

France  be-  population  and  one-halt  or  the  territory  or  the  king- 
and  the  dom  opposed  the  schemes  of  Mayenne  and  Philip  the 

Second.  It  was,  however,  Henry's  good  fortune  to 
hold  effectually  in  his  grasp  the  river  Loire,  which  divides 
France  in  two;  for  of  all  the  bridges  and  crossings  which 
must  be  used  in  passing  between  the  northern  and  southern 
banks,  only  the  city  of  Orleans  was  in  the  possession  of  the 
opposite  party.2  But  now,  the  victories  at  Arques,  followed 
by  the  successful  march  of  six  hundred  miles,  had  confirmed 
the  king's  authority  in  eight  contiguous  and  powerful  prov- 


1  De  Thou,  vii.  585-588  ;  Recueil  des  choses  meruorables,  714,  715  ;  IK- 
moires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  188,  etc. 

2  "Que  cette  ville  (Orleans)  seule  servoit  de  passage  a  ceux  de  la  Ligue  sur 
la  riviere  de  Loire,  qui  traversoit,  voire  divisoit  presque  tout  le  royauine  do 
France,  tous  les  autres  ponts  et  passages  qui  estoient  sur  ladite  riviere  jusques 
a  Nantes,  estans  en  Fobeissance  de  sa  Majeste.  De  sorte  que  ceux  de  la  Ligue 
n'avoient  que  le  pont  seul  d'Orleans  pour  traverser  d'une  part  a  l'autre  de  la 
France,  qui  estoit  peu  et  beaucoup  incommode,  pour  se  seeourir  les  un<  les 
autres  quand  le  besoin  le  requereroit."     Memoires  de  Nevers,  ii.  408. 


1590.  ACCESSION   OF   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.  193 

inces,1  and — which  was  equally  important  to  the  necessitous 
prince — had  made  him  master  of  resources  that  would  bring 
him  in  two  million  crowns  a  year.  It  was  not  less  significant  of 
future  success,  that  the  clemency  and  toleration  avowed  and 
The  high  practised  by  Henry  had  won  over  to  his  side  the 
supportlhe5  great  majority  of  the  higher  ecclesiastics  of  the  Ko- 
king-  man  Catholic  Church  itself.     While  the  curates,  for 

the  most  part,  and  the  monks,  with  few  exceptions,  were  ardent 
and  fanatical  adherents  of  the  League,  one  hundred  out  of  the 
one  hundred  and  eighteen  bishops  and  archbishops  of  the  king- 
dom espoused  the  monarch's  side  within  the  three  months  fol- 
lowing his  accession.2  Ko  stronger  proof  could  be  advanced 
of  the  amplitude  of  the  guarantees  given  by  Henry  the  Fourth 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  the  faithfulness  wdth  which, 
those  guarantees  were  observed  by  him. 

Meantime  Paris  had  been  a  theatre  of  discord.  The  "  Six- 
teen "  had  in  the  first  instance  taken  advantage  of  the  losses 
contention  sustained  by  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  about  Arques  and 
-esbceteen"e  Dieppe  to  strengthen  their  own  faction.  Parliament 
and  Mayenne.  was  agajn  invaded  by  insolent  men,  and  its  authority 
reduced  to  naught.  Scenes  of  robbery  and  assassination  were 
again  witnessed.  In  the  u  Council  of  the  Union,"  preparations 
were  on  foot  to  make  a  virtual  surrender  of  France  to  Philip 
the  Second,  but  the  plan  was  cleverly  thwarted  by  Mayenne 
when  he  secured  the  solemn  recognition  of  Cardinal  Bourbon 
as  king  under  the  title  of  "  Charles  the  Tenth,"  and  of  himself 
as  the  phantom  king's  lieutenant-general.     To  exclude  Spanish 

1  lie  de  France,  Picardy,  Champagne,  Normandy,  Orleanois,  Touraine, 
Maine  and  Anjou. 

2  Poirson,  Histoire  du  rcgne  de  Henri  IV.,  i.  50,  51,  148,  157,  158.  "  Car 
s'il  faut  esplucher  les  choses,"  wrote  a  pamphleteer  about  the  close  of  the  year, 
"  de  cent  ou  six  vingts  evesques  et  archevesques  qui  sont  au  royaume  de 
France,  il  n'y  en  a  pas  la  dixiesme  qui  approuve  les  conseils  de  l'TJnion." 
Ttesponse  a  un  avis  qui  conseille  aux  Francois  de  se  rendre  sous  la  protection 
du  roy  d'Espagne,  printed  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  199.  The  Dialogue 
du  Manant  et  du  Maheustre,  published  about  three  or  four  years  later,  more 
distinctly  states  the  royalist  prelates  as  consisting  of  11  archbishops  and  89 
bishops,  and  the  opposite  party  as  composed  of  3  archbishops  and  15  bishops, 
*'  encore  des  moindres." 

Vol.  IL— 13 


194      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE    Ca  XI. 

pretensions  still  more  completely,  the  pope  was  declared  sole 
protector  of  France,  and  the  very  "  Council  of  the  Union  "  was 
replaced  by  a  "  State  Council  "  attached  to  the  duke's  person.' 

Upon  one  point,  however,  the  adherents  of  the  League  seemed 
at  this  time  to  be  almost  unanimous — Henry  the  Fourth  must 
not  be  permitted  in  any  way  to  obtain  a  decent  excuse  for  he- 
coming  a  Roman  Catholic,  or  be  recognized  as  king,  even  should 
he  simulate  conversion.  Villeroy,  alone,  gave  Mayenne  some 
sound  advice — which  the  duke  took  good  care  not  to  follow 
and  held  up  to  him  the  imperishable  glory  he  would  acquire  In- 
becoming  the  author  of  a  blessed  peace  throughout  France." 
But  the  papal   legate,  Cardinal   Caietan,  effectually 

The  legate  * 

forbids  the      precluded  the  possibilitv  of  a  consummation  devoutly 

bishops  from      -1  ir-ii  i        i        •  i  tt  ° 

assembling  at  prayed  for  by  honest  men  on  both  sides.  Henry  the 
Fourth  had  ordered  the  convocation  of  the  states  o:en- 
eral  to  take  place  at  Tours  in  the  coming  month  of  March,  with 
a  special  view  to  the  conference  of  the  archbishops  and  bishops 
in  a  national  council,  to  deliberate  respecting  the  means  of  the 
king's  conversion.  But  the  legate,  on  the  first  day  of  the 
month  that  should  have  witnessed  their  gathering,  addressed  to 
each  of  the  French  prelates  a  letter  in  which  he  not  only  pro- 
tested against  the  validity  of  a  meeting  called  by  a  prince  un- 
authorized to  perform  such  an  act,  but  declared  in  advance  any 
decisions  it  might  reach  to  be  null  and  void.  If  Henry  of 
Bourbon,  "  self-styled  King  of  France,"  was  sincerely  desirous 
of  returning  to  the  Catholic  faith,  there  were  sufficient  of  doctors 
and  preachers  in  Paris  competent  to  instruct  him  without  put- 
ting so  many  bishops  to  the  trouble  of  coming  together.  If.  on 
the  other  hand,  it  was  contemplated  to  enter  into  a  discu- 
on  points  of  controversy  between  the  Romish  Church  and  the 
synagogue  of  Calvin,  this  was  but  giving  the  advantage  to  here- 
tics and  making  a  mock  of  religion.    He,  consequently,  forbade 

1  For  these  events  I  must  refer  the  reader  to  the  admirably  clear  narrative 
of  M.  Poirson. 

2  See  u  Advis  de  M.  de  Villeroy  a  M.  le  due  de  Mayenne,"  an  important  pa- 
per appended  to  the  Memoires  de  Villeroy  (Collection  Midland  et  Poujoulat  , 
225.  It  was  written  and  handed  to  Mayenne  about  the  close  of  the  year  1  ~>s'.< 
Ibid.,  147. 


L590.  THE   BATTLE   OF   IVRY.  195 

the  prelates  from  going  to  Tours,  and,  in  the  name  of  his  master, 
proclaimed  all  that  should  persist  in  proceeding  thither  to  be 
excommunicated  and  deposed.1 

The  audacious  act    of  the    presuming   foreigner  effectually 

prevented  the  assembly  of  Tours,  and  indefinitely  postponed  the 

pacification  of  France.     As  pontifical  legate  he  had 

cardinal         claimed,  in  the  document  just  referred  to,  the  exclu- 

Caietan. 

sive  right  of  calling  together  the  French  prelates  at 
his  good  pleasure.  In  fact,  his  whole  course  of  conduct  testi- 
fied to  an  overweening  estimate  of  his  importance.  It  was  char- 
acteristic of  the  man's  arrogance  that,  on  the  occasion  of  his 
formal  reception  by  the  parliament,  he  proceeded  straightway 
to  the  corner  of  the  hall  always  reserved  for  royalty,  and  was 
about  to  take  possession  of  the  king's  place,  when  the  patriotic 
and  somewhat  indignant  first  president  laid  forcible  hands  upon 
him,  and  compelled  him  to  accept  a  more  humble  seat  by  his 
own  side.2  It  was  the  same  impetuosity  that  led  Cajetan  to  go 
far  beyond  his  instructions  and  throw  in  his  lot  distinctly  with 
the  League.  Sixtus  the  Fifth  had  certainly  contemplated  no 
such  thing.  Anxious  only  to  side  with  that  party  which  should 
prove  the  stronger,3  he  was  resolved  that  his  legate  should  act 
with  the  utmost  circumspection.  As  it  was,  some  thought  it  a 
fortunate  circumstance  for  Cajetan  that  Sixtus  was  dead  by  the 
time  the  returning  legate  again  reached  Rome  ;  else  the  pope 
would  have  had  him  beheaded  for  kindling  the  fire  of  sedition, 
contrary  to  his  express  commands.4 

Henry,  after  his  successful  march  through  ^Normandy,  again 
began  to  approach  Paris.     Early  in  the  month  of  March,  1590, 

having  relieved  the  garrison  of  Meulan,  bravely  de- 
Henry  lays  °  °  .  .  J 

siege  to  tended   tor  many  days  against  a  superior  attacking 

force,  the  king  found  himself  near  the  spot  where, 
about  twenty-seven  years  before,  the  Huguenots  under  Conde 
and  Coligny  had  fought  their  first  pitched  battle  with  the  Roman 
Catholics,  commanded  by  Constable  Montmorency,  Francis  of 


1  Lestoile,  ii.  12  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  (liv.  98)  605,  606. 

*  Lestoile,  ii.  11 ;  De  Thou,  vii.  602. 

3  De  Thou,  vii.  601.  4  Lestoile,  ii.  35. 


196      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XL 

Guise,  and  Marshal  Saint  Andre.1  In  laying  siege  to  the  citv 
of  Dreux,  it  was  Henry's  purpose  to  cut  off  one  of  the  principal 
sources  of  supply  for  the  capital,  whose  inhabitants  were  already 
chafing  under  the  interruption  of  their  communications  with  the 
upper  Seine  and  Marne.  The  Duke  of  Mayenne  found  himself 
compelled  by  the  urgency  of  the  Parisians  to  go  to  the  rescue. 
On  his  approach,  the  king,  who  desired  nothing  better  than  an 
opportunity  to  meet  his  enemies  on  the  open  field,  promptly 
raised  the  siege  and  prepared  for  a  conflict  which  he  hoped 
might  prove  decisive. 

The  battle  of  Ivry,  fought  on  Wednesday,  the  fourteenth  of 
March,  1590,  is  one  of  those  great  days  in  the  history  of  the 
The  battle  of  wor^  whose  occurrences,  even  to  the  smallest  details, 
i4r"i59oarch  are  °^  interest?  and  have  been  frequently  told.  There 
is  perhaps  no  military  engagement,  within  the  bounds 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  careful  examination  of  which  will  bet- 
ter repay  the  student  of  the  art  of  war.  The  disparity  between 
the  armies  was  considerable.  Mayenne's  troops  numbered  six- 
teen thousand  men,  of  whom  twelve  thousand  were  foot  soldiers 
and  four  thousand  cavalry.  Henry  had  but  eight  thousand  foot 
soldiers  and  two  thousand  two  hundred  cavalry,  or  a  little  over 
ten  thousand  men  in  all.  Of  this  number  a  part  had  but  just 
reached  him  the  day  before  the  battle,  and  a  part  came  up 
when  the  forces  were  already  drawn  out  on  the  field.  Even 
thus,  however,  Henry  commanded  not  far  from  twice  the  num- 
ber he  had  led,  two  years  and  a  half  before,  at  Coutras ;  while 
Mayenne's  forces  exceeded  by  almost  a  half  the  whole  assem- 
blage of  men  engaged  on  both  sides  upon  that  eventful  day. 

Each  of  the  two  armies  had  its  own  advantages.  The  body 
of  horse  brought  by  Count  Egmont  from  the  Netherlands  was 
a  formidable  detachment.  That  their  leader,  degenerate  son  of 
a  noble  father,  was  fighting  under  the  banners  of  the  assassin  of 
that  father,  detracted  neither  from  his  courage  nor  from  theirs. 
Fifteen  hundred  of  his  followers  were  armed  with  the  lance,  a 
weapon  before  which  scarcely  anything  could  stand  when  there 
was  sufficient  room  for  a  deliberate  charge.     On  the  other  hand, 

1  See  Rise  of  the  Huguenots,  ii.  93. 


1590.  THE  BATTLE  OF  IVRY.  197 

the  two  thousand  French  horsemen  serving  under  their  king  pre- 
sented a  sight  that  called  forth  admiration  from  friend  and  from 
foe.  Composed  of  the  picked  nobility  of  the  realm,  and  armed 
cap-a-pie,  they  had  no  counterpart  in  the  opposed  ranks.  If 
with  Mayenne's  cavalry  there  was  more  gold  and  glitter,  with 
Henry's  knights  there  was  more  steel.  To  the  former  it  was  of 
the  utmost  consequence  that  there  should  be  ample  space  be- 
tween the  armies ;  to  the  latter,  who  had  long  since  discarded 
the  lance  and  relied  upon  the  pistol  and  the  sword  as  their 
weapons  of  offence,  it  was  of  equal  importance  to  come  into 
close  quarters,  where  the  arms  of  their  opponents,  after  the 
force  of  the  first  onset  was  spent,  were  well-nigh  useless. 

On  the  side  of  the  Huguenot  king  there  was  brave  Gabriel 
d' Amours,  a  preacher  who  knew  how  to  fight  as  well  as  how  to 
exhort,  and  a  favorite  minister  of  his  majesty.  His  prayer  be- 
fore the  charge  at  Coutras  had,  as  we  have  seen,  deeply  im- 
pressed both  Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic,  and  one  noble- 
man who  had  been  in  the  opposite  ranks,  but  was  now  about 
to  fight  for  Henry,  had,  on  the  eve  of  the  battle  of  Ivry, 
begged  the  king  for  the  ministrations,  in  the  sight  of  the  two 
armies,  of  that  Huguenot  pastor  who  was  believed  to  have  cast 
a  potent  spell  over  the  army  of  Joyeuse  at  Coutras,  and  the 
army  of  Mayenne  at  Arques.1  The  League,  too,  had  its  sup- 
posed magician — a  monk,  who,  we  are  told,  was  put  forward 
by  the  Walloon  troops  of  Egmont,  clothed  in  priestly  robes,  and 
holding  a  St.  Andrew's  cross.  He  had  promised  his  compa- 
triots to  curse  the  heretics  so  effectually  that  they  would  turn 
to  flight  without  striking  a  blow.  But,  at  the  first  sign  of  a 
charge  on  the  part  of  the  enemy,  the  poor  ecclesiastic  threw 
down  his  cross  upon  the  ground,  and  fled  in  abject  fear.2 
However  it  may  have  been  with  his  opponents,  Henry  of  Na- 
varre was  not  content  to  delegate  to  another  the  duty  of  offer- 
ing supplications  in  his  behalf.  If  we  may  believe  one  who 
must  speak  from  personal  knowledge,  the  Bourbon  prince, 
strange  compound  of  devotion  and  of  worldliness,  spent  almost 

1  See  above,  volume  i.  chapter  vii.  p.  432. 

2  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  230. 


198     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  XI. 

the  whole  of  the  night  preceding  an  engagement,  which  he 
rightly  judged  likely  to  prove  of  critical  importance  to  his  for- 
tunes, in  prayers — not  merely  prayers  offered  in  his  presence, 
but  offered  by  himself.1  Such  of  his  followers  as  could  not 
join  in  such  worship  he  cheerfully  permitted  to  go  to  their 
priests,  or  to  implore  the  favor  of  Heaven  upon  his  arms  in 
whatever  way  they  might  prefer. 

And  now  his  opportunity  was  come.  The  field  had  been 
carefully  explored,  the  position  of  each  corps  in  the  coming 
conflict  precisely  defined.  The  royal  line  was  but  slightly 
curved.  The  extreme  left  was  occupied  by  a  squadron  of 
three  hundred  horse,  under  Marshal  d'Aumont,  flanked  on 
either  side  by  a  body  of  French  infantry.  At  a  very  brief 
interval  came  the  second  squadron  of  three  hundred  horse, 
under  the  Duke  of  Montpensier,  with  a  body  of  five  hundred 
lansquenets  on  the  left  and  a  Swiss  regiment  on  the  right,  and 
these  again  flanked  by  French  infantry.  This  formed  the  left 
wing  of  the  main  line.  Some  fifty  paces  in  advance  of  this  was 
thrown  forward  the  squadron  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  horse, 
under  command  of  the  Baron  Biron,  son  of  the  aged  marshal  of 
that  name,  to  whom,  as  will  be  seen,  an  important  trust  was  con- 
fided elsewhere  upon  the  field.  He  was  supported  by  eight  hun- 
dred infantry.  On  the  same  line  was  drawn  up  the  fourth  squad- 
ron, composed  of  two  bodies  of  two  hundred  light  horsemen 
each,  under  the  young  Count  Givrv  and  the  young  Count  of  Au- 
vergne  respectively.  Between  this  squadron  and  that  of  Baron 
Biron  had  been  posted  the  effective  artillery  of  the  king,  con- 
sisting of  four  larger  pieces  and  two  culverins.  Henry  himself 
commanded  the  fifth  squadron,  occupying  the  centre  of  the  main 
line,  and  composed  of  six  hundred  horsemen — the  v^ry  flower 
of  the  Huguenots  and  of  the  French  noblesse.  Like  the  other 
squadrons,  it  had  a  support  of  infantry  on  either  side — first,  two 
regiments  of  Swiss,  and,  beyond  these,  two  regiments  of  French 
soldiers.     The  sixth  squadron  was  that  under  command  of  old 

1  "  Presque  toute  la  nuict  le  Roi,  apprehendant  cette  bataille,  fut  en  pri- 
eres,  lesqnelles  il  faisoit  lui-rnesmes,  et  envoioit  ceux  qui  n'y  vouloient  pas 
assister,"  etc.     Agrippa  d'Aubign<;,  iii.  '229. 


1..9J.  THE  BATTLE   OF   IVRY.  199 

Marshal  Biron,  the  father,  two  hundred  and  fifty  horse  strong, 
and  with  a  Swiss  regiment  on  either  flank  ;  bat  Biron  had 
been  purposely  thrown  somewhat  to  the  rear,  and  was  in- 
structed to  abstain  from  the  engagement  until  his  reserve  force 
might  be  needed  to  decide  the  fortunes  of  the  day.  The  two 
hundred  and  fifty  German  horse  of  Count  Schomberg  consti- 
tuted the  seventh  squadron,  and  occupied  the  extreme  right. 

In  no  great  battle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  perhaps — cer- 
tainly in  no  battle  wherein  the  Huguenots  took  part — had  more 
care  been  displayed  in  arranging  the  troops  to  the  utmost  ad- 
vantage. The  different  divisions,  while  offering  no  dangerous 
gaps  for  attacks,  were  yet  sufficiently  far  apart  to  allow  free- 
dom of  action.  The  horsemen  were  marshalled,  not  in  the 
dense  columns  which  experience  had  found  unserviceable,  but 
in  five  ranks.  The  cannon  had  been  assigned  a  position  from 
which  they  could  strike  terror  and  create  confusion.  Every- 
thing that  human  foresight  could  provide  had  been  disposed, 
even  to  the  injunction  given  to  the  soldiers  that,  in  case  of  sep- 
aration from  their  comrades,  they  should  instantly  make  their 
way  to  the  rallying-point,  for  the  locality  of  which  three  pear- 
trees,  standing  out  conspicuous  upon  the  plain,  on  the  right, 
were  to  serve  as  the  convenient  indication. 

The  army  of  the  League,  of  which  the  Duke  of  Nemours 
commanded  the  right  wing,  and  the  Chevalier  d'Aumale  the 
left,  with  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  himself  in  the  centre,  was 
drawn  up  somewhat  after  the  same  fashion,  so  far  as  the  distri- 
bution of  the  infantry  was  concerned  ;  but  the  line  was  made 
decidedly  a  crescent,  and  the  imperfect  vision  of  the  near- 
sighted Yiscount  of  Tavannes,  upon  whom  the  task  of  arrang- 
ing the  horse  upon  the  field  of  battle  had  devolved,  led  him  to 
commit  the  fatal  blunder  of  crowding  the  different  corps.  Not 
only  were  there  no  open  spaces  for  the  execution  of  contem- 
plated manoeuvres,  but  the  slightest  divergence  to  right  or  left 
compelled  horse  and  foot  to  jostle  and  interfere  with  each 
other. 

The  superior  skill  displayed  in  the  arrangement  of  the  Hu- 
guenot king's  army  certainly  contributed  quite  as  much  as  the 
valor  of  his  followers  to  the  subsequent  victory.     Nor  did  the 


200     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  XL 

caution  which  was  as  much  a  characteristic  of  Henry's  mode  of 
warfare  as  his  reckless  courage  in  the  actual  conflict,  forsake 
him  when  on  the  very  eve  of  engaging  the  foe.  As  he  ad- 
vanced his  forces  a  hundred  and  fifty  paces  or  so,  to  bring 
them  nearer  to  the  lines  of  the  reluctant  enemy,  he  also  shifted 
his  position,  so  as  to  relieve  his  men  of  the  glare  of  the  sun 
in  their  eyes,  and  prevent  the  smoke  from  rolling  back  upon 
them. 

The  battle  began  with  a  furious  cannonade  from  the  king's 
artillery,  so  prompt  that  nine  rounds  of  shot  had  been  fired  be- 
fore the  enemy  were  ready  to  reply,  so  well  directed  that  great 
havoc  was  made  in  the  opposing  lines.  Xext,  the  light  horse 
of  M.  de  Rosne,  upon  the  extreme  right  of  the  Leaguers,  made 
a  dash  upon  Marshal  d'Aumont,  but  were  valiantly  received. 
Their  example  was  followed  by  the  German  reiters,  who  threw 
themselves  upon  the  defenders  of  the  king's  artillery  and  upon 
the  light  horse  of  Aumont,  who  came  to  their  relief ;  then, 
after  their  customary  fashion,  wheeled  around,  expecting  to  pass 
easily  through  the  gaps  between  the  friendly  corps  of  Mayenne 
and  Egmont  and  to  reload  their  firearms  at  their  leisure  in  the 
rear,  by  way  of  preparation  for  a  second  charge.  Owing  to  the 
blunder  of  Tavannes,  however,  they  met  a  serried  line  of  horse, 
where  they  looked  for  an  open  field,  and  the  Walloon  cavalry 
found  themselves  compelled  to  set  their  lances  in  threatening 
position  to  ward  off  the  dangerous  onset  of  their  retreating 
allies.  Another  charge,  made  by  a  squadron  of  the  Walloon 
lancers  themselves,  was  bravely  met  by  Baron  Biron.  His  ex- 
ample was  imitated  by  the  Duke  of  Montpensier  farther  down 
the  field.  Although  the  one  leader  was  twice  wounded  and  the 
other  had  his  horse  killed  under  him,  both  ultimately  succeeded 
in  repulsing  the  enemy. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  the  main  body  of  Henry's  horse 
became  engaged  with  the  gallant  array  of  cavalry  in  their  front. 
Mayenne  had  placed  upon  the  left  of  his  squadron  a  body  of 
four  hundred  mounted  carabineers.  These,  advancing  first,  rode 
rapidly  toward  the  king's  line,  took  aim,  and  discharged  their 
weapons  with  deadly  effect  within  twenty-five  paces.  Immedi- 
ately  afterward  the  main  force  of  eighteen  hundred  lancers 


1690.  THE   BATTLE   OF  IVRY.  201 

presented  themselves.  The  king  had  fastened  a  great  white 
plume  to  his  helmet,  and  had  adorned  his  horse's  head  with 
another  equally  conspicuous.  "  Comrades  !  "  he  now  exclaimed 
to  those  about  him,  "  Comrades !  God  is  for  us  !  There  are 
His  enemies  and  ours  !  If  you  lose  sight  of  your  standards, 
rally  to  my  white  plume ;  you  will  find  it  on  the  road  to  victory 
and  to  honor."  The  Huguenots  had  knelt  after  their  fashion  ; 
again  Gabriel  d'Amours  had  offered  for  them  a  prayer  to  the 
God  of  battles ;  but  no  Joyeuse  dreamed  of  suspecting  that  they 
were  meditating  surrender  or  flight.  The  king,  with  the  brave 
Huguenot  minister's  prediction  of  victory  still  ringing  in  his  ears,1 
plunged  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  two  horses'  length  ahead 
of  his  companions.  That  moment  he  forgot  that  he  was  King 
of  France  and  general-in-chief,  both  in  one,  and  fought  as  if  lie 
were  a  private  soldier.  It  was,  indeed,  a  bold  venture.  True, 
the  enemy,  partly  because  of  the  confusion  induced  by  the  reit- 
ers,  partly  from  the  rapidity  of  the  king's  movements,  had  lost 
in  some  measure  the  advantage  they  should  have  derived  from 
their  lances,  and  were  compelled  to  rely  mainly  upon  their 
swords  as  against  the  firearms  of  their  opponents.  Still,  they 
outnumbered  the  knights  of  the  king's  squadron  more  than  as 
two  to  one.  No  wonder  that  some  of  the  latter  flinched  and 
actually  turned  back ; 2  especially  when  the  standard-bearer  of 
the  king,  receiving  a  deadly  wound  in  the  face,  lost  control  of 
his  horse,  and  went  riding  aimlessly  about  the  field,  still  grasp- 
ing the  banner  in  grim  desperation.  But  the  greater  number 
emulated  the  courage  of  their  leader.  The  white  plume  kept 
them  in  the  road  to  victory  and  to  honor.  Yet  even  this  beacon 
seemed  at  one  moment  to  fail  them.  Another  cavalier,  who  had 
ostentatiously  decorated  his  helmet  much  after  the  same  fashion 
as  the  king,  was  slain  in  the  hand-to-hand  conflict,  and  some, 

1  "  A  la  bataille  d'lvry  vous  me  fistes  faire  la  priere.  Je  vous  dys  que  Dieu 
vous  donneroit  la  victoire."  D'Amours  to  Henry  IV.,  June  20,  1593,  Bulletin 
de  la  Societe  de  l'histoire  du  Protestantisme  francais,  i.  283. 

2  "Vous  donnastes  dans  un  gros  de  douse  ou  quinse  cents  lances  mal  suivi 
des  vostres,  car  plusieurs  de  vostre  gros  tournerent  visage."  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 
So  Sully's  secretaries  write:  "Plusieurs  de  l'escadron  du  Roy  s'enfuirent,  et 
quasi  toute  la  main  gauche  d'iceluy."     Memoires  de  Sully,  c.  30. 


202      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OP  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XI. 

both  of  the  Huguenots  and  of  their  enemies,  for  a  time  sup- 
posed the  great  Protestant  champion  himself  to  have  fallen. 

But,  although  fiercely  contested,  the  conflict  was  not  long. 
The  troopers  of  Mayenne  wavered,  and  finally  fled.  Henry  of 
Navarre  emerged  from  the  confusion,  to  the  great  relief  of  his 
anxious  followers,  safe  and  sound,  covered  with  dust  and  blood 
not  his  own.  More  than  once  he  had  been  in  great  personal 
peril.  On  his  return  from  the  melee,  he  halted,  with  a  hand- 
ful of  companions,  under  the  pear-trees  indicated  beforehand 
as  a  rallying-point,  when  he  was  descried  and  attacked  by  three 
bands  of  Walloon  horse  that  had  not  yet  engaged  in  the  fight. 
Only  his  own  valor  and  the  timely  arrival  of  some  of  his  troops 
saved  the  imprudent  monarch  from  death  or  captivity. 

The  rout  of  Mayenne's  principal  corps  was  quickly  followed 
by  the  disintegration  of  his  entire  army.  The  Swiss  auxiliaries 
of  the  League,  though  compelled  to  surrender  their  flags,  were, 
as  ancient  allies  of  the  crown,  admitted  to  honorable  terms  of 
capitulation.  To  the  French  who  fell  into  the  king's  hands  he 
was  equally  clement.  Indeed,  he  spared  no  efforts  to  save  their 
lives.1  But  it  was  otherwise  with  the  German  lansquenets. 
Their  treachery  at  Arques,  where  they  had  pretended  to  come 
over  to  the  royal  side  only  to  turn  upon  those  who  had  believed 
their  protestations  and  welcomed  them  to  their  ranks,  wa>  vet 
fresh  in  the  memory  of  all.  They  received  no  mercy  at  the 
king's  hands.2 

Gathering  his  available  forces  together,  and  strengthened  hv 
the  accession  of  old  Marshal  Biron,  who  had  been  compelled, 

1  "Et  est  une  chose  digne  vraiment  de  notre  roi,  que  dedans  la  melee  il 
avait  cette  parole  souvent  en  la  bouche,  que  Ton  dpargnat  Le  Bang  dee  Francaia 
le  plusqu'il  serait  possible."  Lettres  d'Etienne  Pasquier  (Ed.  Feogero),  ii.  :>4:V 
According  to  the  same  writer,  an  officious  valet  having  next  day  brought  out 
the  sword  Henry  had  used  in  the  battle,  still  bloody  and  dented,  with  parti- 
cles of  flesh  and  hair  yet  clinging  to  it,  the  prince  at  once  commanded  him 
to  take  out  of  his  sight  so  palpable  a  mark  of  the  horrors  of  war. 

2  Among  many  others,  Gabriel  d'Amours  refers  to  this  circumstance  :  UJ* 
vous  dys  au  champ  de  bataille,  les  Suisses  n'estant  encor  rondos,  lors  qu'on 
tuoit  des  lansquenetz  au  coing  d'ung  boys  pource  qu'ils  nous  avoyent  Iraki  a 
Arques."      Bulletin  de   la  Societe  de  1  histoire   du  Protestantism 

i.  283. 


1590.  THE  BATTLE   OF   IVRY.  203 

much  against  his  will,  to  remain  a  passive  spectator  while  others 
fought,  Henry  pursued  the  remnants  of  the  army  of  the  League 
many  a  mile  to  Mantes  and  the  banks  of  the  Seine.1  If  their 
defeat  by  a  greatly  inferior  force  had  been  little  to  the  credit 
of  either  the  generals  or  the  troops  of  the  League,  their  precipi- 
tate flight  was  still  less  decorous.  The  much- vaunted  Flemish 
lancers  distinguished  themselves,  it  was  said,  by  not  pausing  until 
they  found  safety  beyond  the  borders  of  France,  and  Mayenne, 
never  renowned  for  courage,  emulated  or  surpassed  them  in  the 
eagerness  he  displayed,  on  reaching  the  little  town  from  which 
the  battle  took  its  name,  to  put  as  many  leagues  as  possible 
between  himself  and  his  pursuers.  "The  enemy  thus  ran 
away,"  says  the  Englishman  William  Lyly,  who  was  an  eye-wit- 
ness of  the  battle  ;  "  Mayenne  to  Ivry,  where  the  Walloons  and 
reiters  followed  so  fast  that  there  standing,  hasting  to  draw 
breath,  and  not  able  to  speak,  he  was  constrained  to  draw  his 
sword  to  strike  the  flyers  to  make  place  for  his  own  flight.  " 2 


1  The  most  full  and  accurate  account  of  the  hattle  of  Ivry  is  undoubtedly 
the  "  Discours  veritable  de  la  victoire  obtenue  par  le  Roy  en  la  bataille  donne 
pres  le  village  d'Yri  i^Yvry),  le  quatorziesme  jour  de  Mars  1590  "  (Memoires  de 
la  Ligue,  iv.  254-271),  an  official  paper  written,  it  is  known,  by  one  of  the 
king's  secretaries,  M.  de  Fresne,  sieur  de  Forget,  for  immediate  publication. 
It  is  the  "  discours  "  referred  to  by  Henry  himself  in  his  letter  of  March  25th, 
to  M.  de  Luxembourg  (Lettres  missives,  iii.  183,  184),  as  prepared  by  his  orders 
and  accompanying  his  letter.  The  descriptions  in  the  Recueil  des  choses 
memorables  (Histoire  des  cinq  rois),  716-720,  and  in  Matthieu,  Histoire  des 
derniers  troubles,  liv.  5,  fols.  16-20,  are  mere  abridgments  of  the  same,  in 
great  part  reproducing  the  very  words.  Duplessis  Mornay's  Memoire  was 
written  on  the  16th  of  March,  and  contains  general  impressions  of  great 
value  (Memoires,  iv.  473-477).  Henry  the  Fourth's  own  letters,  of  March  14th 
and  25th,  are  of  prime  importance  (Lettres missives,  iii.  162  and  183).  The  let- 
ter of  Longueville  toNevers,  of  March  17th  (Memoires  de  Nevers,  ii.  pref.),  con- 
tains some  particulars  which  an  official  account  would  scarcely  be  expected  to 
insert.  See,  also,  Memoires  de  Sally,  c.  30  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  609-619  ;  Agrippa 
d'Aubigne,  iii.  228-233  ;  Davila,  443-449 ;  and  Marshal  Biron's  letter  to  M. 
du  Haillan,  written  from  Mantes,  March  24,  1590,  printed  in  Daniel,  Histoire 
de  France,  xi.  587-591.  In  this  he  remarks:  "  L'on  me  met  de  ceux  qui  ont 
part  a  la  victoire,  encores  que  je  n'aye  combattu." 

*  I  am  indebted  for  this  quotation  to  Mr.  Motley  (United  Netherlands,  iii 
56),  whose  narrative  of  the  battle  is  a  beautiful  example  of  the  great  his- 
torian's characteristic  brilliancy  of  description.      Among  the  conflicting  state- 


204      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  XL 

The  battle  had  been  a  short  one.  Between  ten  and  eleven 
o'clock  the  first  attack  was  made  ;  in  less  than  an  hour  the  army 
Brilliant  sue-    of  the  League  was  routed.1     It  had  been  a  glorious 

cess  of  Henry.    ac^on    fQr    ^}ie   ^[ng    an(J  ^g    Q\^  Huguenots,   aild    UOt 

less  for  the  loyal  Roman  Catholics  who  clung  to  him.  None 
seemed  discontented  but  old  Marshal  Biron,  who,  when  he  met 
the  king  coming  out  of  the  fray  with  battered  armor  and  blunted 
sword,  could  not  help  contrasting  the  opportunity  his  majesty 
had  enjoyed  to  distinguish  himself  with  his  own  enforced  in- 
activity,2 and  exclaimed :  "Sire,  this  is  not  right!  You  have 
to-day  done  what  Biron  ought  to  have  done,  and  he  has  done 
what  the  king  should  have  done."  J  But  even  Biron  was  unable 
to  deny  that  the  success  of  the  royal  arms  surpassed  all  expec- 
tation, and  deserved  to  rank  among  the  wonders  of  history. 
The  preponderance  of  the  enemy  in  numbers  had  been  great. 
There  was  no  question  that  the  impetuous  attacks  of  their  cav- 
alry upon  the  left  wing  of  the  king  were  for  a  time  almost 
successful.  The  official  accounts  might  conveniently  be  silent 
upon  the  point,  but  the  truth  could  not  be  disguised  that  at 
the  moment  Henry  plunged  into  battle  a  part  of  his  line  was 
grievously  shaken,  a  part  was  in  full  retreat,  and  the  prospect 
was  dark  enough.  Some  of  his  immediate  followers,  indeed, 
at  this  time  turned  countenance  and  were  disposed  to  flee,  where- 
upon he  recalled  them  to  their  duty  with  the  words:  "Look 
this  way,  in  order  that,  if  you  will  not  fight,  at  least  yon   may 

merits  that  have  come  down  to  us  respecting  the  incidents  of  a  somewhat 
intricate  engagement,  it  is  not  strange  that  Mr.  Motley  seems  to  have  fallen 
into  a  few  mistakes.  I  need  only  refer  here  to  the  confusion  of  the  names  of 
Baron  Biron  and  his  father.  When  the  writer  says  that  the  heavy  troop 
Flanders  and  Hainault  dashed  upon  old  Marshal  Biron,  routing  hi*  cavalry, 
charging  clean  up  to  the  Huguenot  guns  and  sabring  the  cannoneers,  he  for- 
gets that  that  veteran  officer  was  in  reality  on  a  distant  part  of  the  field,  chafing 
under  the  orders  that  forbade  him  from  bringing  his  reserves  into  the  action. 

1  Henry  IV.  to  the  Mayor  of  Langres,  March  14,  1590,  Memoires  de  la  Ligue, 
iv.  274. 

2  "  J'oubliois  a  vous  dire  qu'il  y  aeubeaucoup  de  cavalerie,  ou  commandoit 
M.  le  Mareschal  de  Biron,  qui  ne  combattit  point. "  Letter  of  M.  de  Longneville, 
ubi  supra.  "  Le  Mareschal  de  Biron  avec  deux  cents  homines  de  reserve 
n'avoit  point  combatu."     Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  232. 

3  Perefixe,  118. 


1590.  THE   BATTLE   OF   IVRY.  205 

see  me  die."  '  But  the  steady  and  determined  courage  of  the 
king,  well  seconded  by  soldiers  not  less  brave,  turned  the  tide 
of  battle.  "  The  enemy  took  flight,"  says  the  devout  Duplessis 
Mornay,  "  terrified  rather  by  God  than  by  men ;  for  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  one  side  was  not  less  shaken  than  the  other."  a 
And  with  the  flight  of  the  cavalry,  Mayenne's  infantry,  com 
sti tuting,  as  has  been  seen,  three-fourths  of  his  entire  army,  gave 
up  the  day  as  lost,  without  striking  a  blow  for  the  cause  they 
had  come  to  support.  How  many  men  the  army  of  the  League 
lost  in  killed  and  wounded  it  is  difficult  to  say.  The  Prince  of 
Parma  reported  to  his  master  the  loss  of  two  hundred  and  sev- 
enty of  the  Flemish  lancers,  together  with  their  commander,  the 
Count  of  Egmont.  The  historian  De  Thou  estimates  the  entire 
number  of  deaths  on  the  side  of  the  League,  including  the 
combatants  that  fell  in  the  battle  and  the  fugitives  drowned  at 
the  crossing  of  the  river  Eure,  by  Ivry,  at  eight  hundred.  The 
official  account,  on  the  other  hand,  agrees  with  Marshal  Biron 
in  stating  that  of  the  cavalry  alone  more  than  fifteen  hundred 
died,  and  adds  that  four  hundred  were  taken  prisoners  ;  while 
Davila  swells  the  total  of  the  slain  to  the  incredible  sum  of  up- 
ward of  six  thousand  men.3 

Resting  his  pursuit  at  Posny  for  the  night,  Henry  retired, 
with  a  very  few  of  his  followers,  into  a  private  chamber  and 
rendered  thanks  to  God  Almighty  for  so  signal  a  victory. 
"  What  think  you  of  our  work  ?  "  he  asked  his  faithful  Duples- 
sis Mornay.  "  You  have  done  the  bravest  act  of  folly  that  ever 
was,"  replied  the  secretary ;  "  for  you  have  risked  your  king- 
dom on  a  throw  of  dice.     But  you  have  had  the  opportunity  to 

1  Etienne  Pasquier,  Lettres  (CEuvres  choisies),  ii.  342.  M.  de  Longueville 
is  even  more  candid.  He  represents  the  king,  at  the  moment  of  charging 
Mayenne,  as  having  seen  "toute  son  avant-garde  ebranslee."  Memoires  de 
Nevers,  ubi  supra.  According  to  the  military  nomenclature  of  the  times,  the  left 
wing,  under  Montpensier,  etc.,  constituted  the  "avant-garde,"  the  centre  and 
right  wing,  the  "bataille."  Pierre  Corneio  says  of  the  forces  of  the  League  : 
"  Dieu  rabaissa  tellement  en  un  instant  leur  esperance,  qu'en  un  quart  d'heure 
ils  furent  quasi  maistres  du  champ,  et  en  demi-quart  d'heure  depuis  mis  en 
route  et  vaincus."     Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  297. 

8  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  iv.  475. 

3  Motley,  De  Thou,  Discours  veritable,  Davila,  Biron,  etc.,  ubi  supra. 


206     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     On.  Xi. 

learn  that  the  lot  is  in  God's  hands,  and  the  results  must  in 
very  deed  be  devoted  to  Him.  Meantime,  we  all  swear  to  fight 
for  your  preservation;  but  we  demand  of  you  another  oath  to 
secure  our  own  safety — that  henceforth  you  pronii.se  never  to 
fight  in  person."  ' 

That  very  evening  the  Bearnais  wrote  an  account  of  his  ex- 
ploit to  the  faithful  Mayor  of  Langres.     "  It  has  pleased  God," 
Henry's  own    he  said,  "  to  grant  me  what  most  I  desired — the  op- 
portunity to  offer  battle  to  my  enemies,  being  confi- 
dent that  he  would  give  me  the  victory,  as  has  happened  to-day. 

A  battle  has  taken  place,  in  which  dud  lias  been  pie 
to  make  known  that  His  protection  is  ever  on  the  side  of  right  : 
for  in  less  than  an  hour  after  the  enemy  vented  upon  me  I 
wrath,  in  two  or  three  charges  made  and  sustained  by  them,  all 
their  cavalry  began  to  despair,  abandoning  their  entire  infan- 
try, which  was  very  numerous.  Seeing  this  their  Swiss  had 
recourse  to  my  mercy  and  surrendered — colonels,  captain.-,  sol- 
diers, and  all  their  standards.  The  lansquenets  and  French 
footmen  had  no  leisure  to  come  to  this  resolution  ;  for  there 
were  cut  to  pieces  more  than  twelve  hundred  of  each,  while  the 
rest  were  taken  prisoners  or  driven  into  the  woods  at  the  mercy 
of  the  peasantry.  Of  their  cavalry  nine  hundred  to  a  thousand 
were  killed,  and  four  or  five  hundred  unhorsed  or  made  prison- 
ers, without  reckoning  their  valets,  who  are  in  great  number.-. 
or  those  that  were  drowned  at  the  crossing  of  the  river  Kim*. 
.  .  .  The  white  ensign  [the  standard  of  the  commanding 
general]  has  fallen  into  my  hands,  together  with  the  officer  who 
carried  it;  also,  twelve  or  fifteen  other  colors  of  cavalry  and 
twice  that  number  of  colors  of  infantry,  all  the  artillery  and 
countless  lords  taken  prisoners.  .  .  .  It  is  a  miraculous 
work  of  God,  who  preserved  me,  and  vouchsafed  to  give  me  this 
resolution  to  attack  them,  and  then  the  grace  to  be  able  to  carry 
it  out  so  happily.  His  alone  is  the  glory,  while  that  part  which 
by  permission  may  belong  to  men,  is  due  to  the  princes,  officers 
of  the  crown,  lords  and  captains  of  all  the  noblesse  that  flocked 


1  Memoires    de  Madame  de   Mornav  (Edition  of  the  Historical  Society  of 
France),  192. 


1590.  THE   BATTLE   OF   IVRY.  207 

hither  with  snch  eagerness,  and  deported  themselves  so  success- 
fully that  their  ancestors  have  left  no  more  beautiful  examples 
of  heroism  than  they  will  leave  to  their  posterity."  ] 

Had  Henry   and   his  victorious   army   pushed  on  at  once  to 

the  capital,  instead  of  pausing  at  Mantes,  as  they  did,  for  a 

whole  fortnight,  there  is  everv  reason  to  believe  that 

The  king  fails    _  111'  i    •       "  -1      •  i 

to  push  his  Paris  would  have  opened  its  gates  at  their  approach, 
and  the  war  would  have  been  virtually  ended.2  The 
League  was  overwhelmed  with  terror;  the  army  was  either  de- 
stroyed or  utterly  demoralized.  No  prompt  assistance  could  be 
expected  from  any  quarter.  The  disaster  which  had  befallen 
the  Flemish  auxiliaries,  with  the  death  of  their  young  and  arro- 
gant leader,  discredited  for  the  time  even  the  ability  of  Spain 
to  rescue  its  French  allies.  The  secret  partisans  of  Henry 
were  as  much  elated  as  the  "  Sixteen  "  and  their  adherents  were 
dispirited.  A  vigorous  advance  on  the  part  of  the  king  might 
have  given  them  the  courage  to  assert  themselves  boldly.  La 
None  of  the  Iron  Arm,  than  whom  a  better  adviser  could  not 
be  found,  warmly  recommended  that  Henry  should  ride  on  at 
the  same  pace  with  which  he  had  come  to  Mantes,  until  he 
should  reach  the  gates  of  Paris.  Must  the  blame  for  the  fail- 
ure to  carry  out  this  plan  be  laid  to  the  account  of  Henry  him- 
self ?  Must  the  blunder  be  classed  with  the  examples  of  supine- 
ness  and  inability  to  reap  the  fruit  of  victories,  which  he  had 
given  after  the  battle  of  Coutras  and  after  the  capture  of  the 
faubourgs  of  Paris  ?  Not  primarily,  nor  altogether.  It  was  the 
misfortune  of  Henry  to  have  in  his  council  Iioman  Catholics  of 
ability  and  influence,  men  who  had  hazarded  life  in  his  service 
even  in  this  last  battle,  men  who  were  therefore  really  desirous 
of  his  ultimate  success,  but  would  have  been  disappointed  had 
the  Huguenot  king  been  able,  before  the  conversion  of  which 


1  Henry  IV.  toRoussart,  Mayor  of  Langres,  Rosny,  March  14,  1590.  Memoires 
de  la  Ligue,  iv.  273-276. 

-  Lestoile  and  Pierre  Corneio,  both  of  whom  were  well  qualified  to  express 
an  opinion,  agree  on  this  point.  The  former  says  that  Henry  could  and  should 
have  taken  Paris ;  the  latter  regards  his  delay,  the  result  of  intoxication  with 
success  in  the  battle  of  Ivry,  as  a  mark  of  the  Divine  intervention  for  the 
salvation  of  Paris.     Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  297,  298. 


208      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XI. 

he  held  forth  hopes,  to  obtain  an  easy  and  complete  triumph 
over  the  last  vestiges  of  the  League.  Religion  gave  a  superficial 
coloring  to  their  motives,  but  private  interest  was  at  the  bot- 
tom the  controlling  power.  Two  names  have  come  down  to  us 
of  such  disloyal  advisers — old  Marshal  Biron  and  Monsieur  d'O. 
Marshal  Biron  The  f°rmer  knew  that  with  the  return  of  peace  his  own 
d°ohindei-eSeau^lor^y  as  chief  military  counsellor  would  be  at  an 
siege  of  Paris.  en(j  .  fi1Q  r0yai  pupil  would  be  f  ully  emancipated  from 
the  master's  ferule.  The  latter,  as  superintendent  of  the  finances, 
preferred  that  Paris  should  be  taken  by  force  rather  than 
by  peaceable  means,  for  he  looked  with  covetous  eyes  upon  the 
probable  confiscation  of  the  municipal  revenues.  While  the 
doughty  old  warrior  dissuaded  the  king  by  raising  up  imagin- 
ary difficulties,  the  wily  and  unscrupulous  treasurer  had  a  hun- 
dred ways  of  presenting  very  real  and  insurmountable  obsta- 
cles, in  the  form  of  an  absolute  deficiency  of  money  to  meet 
the  demands  of  mercenary  troops  always  clamorous  at  the  I 
inopportune  time.1 

And  so  the  golden  opportunity  was  missed  to  conclude  the 
struggle  virtually  at  one  blow.  How  much  of  disaster  to  France, 
of  dishonor  to  the  king  himself,  depended  upon  the  die  now 
cast,  the  world  will  never  know.  Three  years  later,  Henry, 
wearied  of  protracted  war,  was  told,  and  he  believed  the  state- 
ment, that  Paris  was  certainly  worth  a  mass.  If,  by  promptly 
following  up  his  victory  at  Ivry,  the  son  of  Jeanne  d'Albret 
had  now  gained  possession  of  his  capital,  its  later  purchase 
at  so  heavy  a  price  would  have  been  unnecessary.  It  is,  at 
any  rate,  doubtful  whether  the  memory  of  the  most  chivalric 


1  Sully,  in  two  passages  (chapter  30  of  the  first  part,  and  chapter  50  of  the 
second  part  of  his  CEconomies  royales),  charges  the  delay  upon  a  concerted 
plot  of  the  "financiers,"  and  in  one  of  them  particularizes  Monsieur  d'O. 
The  second  passage  occurs  in  a  letter  written  by  Sully  to  Henry  IV.  in  1605, 
where  he  distinctly  reminded  his  majesty  that  when  Henry  was  anxious  to 
proceed  to  the  capture  of  Paris,  "the  men  of  your  council  and  their  followers 
made  your  army  immovable,  by  causing  it  to  be  deficient  of  all  things  ''  Mezt'- 
rayv(Abrege  chronologique,  vi.  26)  inculpates  both  Biron  and  d'O,  the  former 
"  parce  qu'il  craignoit  que  le  Roy,  lequel  il  traitoit  comme  son  disciple,  ne 
sortit,  s'il  faut  ainsi  parler,  de  dessous  sa  ferule,"  etc. 


1590.  THE   BATTLE   OF   IVRY.  209 

prince  of  the  sixteenth  century  would  have  been  tarnished  by 
the  record  of  an  insincere  abjuration. 

If  by  his  delay  the  king  hoped  to  give  an  opportunity  to 
Mayenne  and  the  Parisians  to  return  to  a  better  mind,  he  was 
greatly  deceived.  The  duke  made  use  of  the  respite  to  write 
to  Philip  and  to  the  pope  imploring  aid.  In  both  his  let- 
ters he  cast  the  entire  blame  for  the  recent  defeat  upon  the 
German   reiters,  whom  a  few  discharges  of  cannon 

The  duke  of  .J3 

Mayenne  im-  and  a  few  arquebuse  shots  so  terrified  that  they 
Philip  and  promptly  fled,  and  throwing  themselves  upon  the 
duke's  own  cavalry  caused  irremediable  confusion.1 
The  tone  of  the  letter  to  Philip  was  of  abject  supplication. 
*'  Sire,"  wrote  this  very  patriotic  Frenchman  to  the  king  of  a 
rival  country,  "I  protest  that,  whether  strong  or  weak,  I  shall 
never  make  default  in  any  duty,  and  shall  finish  my  days  with 
the  fulfilment  of  the  oath  which  I  made  and  which  I  again 
repeated  in  the  letters  I  wrote  to  your  majesty,  on  the  depar- 
ture of  M.  Tassis,  which  is  that  I  shall  rather  die  than  be  false 
to  it."  In  return  for  which,  he  begged  for  money  to  raise 
troops — money,  the  lack  of  which  he  said  drove  him  to  despair.2 
To  the  pope  Mayenne  assumed  the  air  of  injured  innocence, 
and  boldly  reproached  his  holiness  with  having  abandoned  him 
when  engaged  in  the  service  of  God.  And  he  did  not  conceal 
his  disgust  that  the  head  of  the  faithful  should  allow  himself 
to  be  swayed  by  purely  human  considerations,  selfishly  hoarding 
up  his  treasures,  shunning  all  expense,  and  remaining  an  idle  and 
uninterested  spectator  of  the  public  calamities  of  Christendom.3 
For,  strange  to  say,  the  League  had  come  to  regard  itself  as 
more  Catholic  than  the  pope  himself,  and,  encouraged  by  the 
Altered  views  example  of  Spain,  looked  at  Sixtus  as  little  better 
of  sixtusv.  tnan  a  favorer  of  heretics.  In  truth,  Sixtus  had  so 
greatly  changed  his  views  respecting  Henry  the  Fourth  since  he 
despatched  Cardinal  Cajetan  to  France,  that  he  appeared  to  be 

1  "La  vraye  cause  de  notre  mal  fust,  que  nos  reistres  estonnez  de  quelques 
coups  de  canons  et  harquebuzes  qui  donnerent  parmi  eux,  s'enfuirent  aussy- 
tost  en  groz  et  se  vindrent  renverser  sur  ma  cornette  et  trouppe  "  Mayenne 
to  Philip  II.,  Soissons,  March  22,  1590,  De  Croze,  ii.  408. 

2  Ibid.,  ii.  405.  3  Summary  in  De  Thou,  vii.  621. 

Vol.  II.— 14 


210     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  XL 

acting  at  cross  purposes  with  his  legate,  when  this  legate  was 
merely  following  out  his  original  instructions.  Sixtus  the  Fifth 
had  from  the  commencement  conceived  for  the  chivalric  prince 
an  admiration  which  was  heightened,  rather  than  abated,  by 
the  undaunted  boldness  of  Henry's  attitude  in  respect  to  the 
papal  bull  of  excommunication  of  1585.  Recently  his  leanings 
in  this  direction  had  become  more  evident.  The  Roman  Cath- 
olic princes  of  the  blood  and  great  nobles  of  France  who  had 
espoused  Henry's  interests  had  sent  Monseigneur  de  Luxem- 
bourg to  Rome,  and,  in  January,  1590,  Sixtus  had  gone  so  far 
as  to  grant  him  an  audience,  despite  the  remonstrances  of  the 
Spanish  party.  Nay,  instead  of  closing  his  ears,  the  pope  Lad 
listened  with  undisguised  pleasure  to  the  description  Luxem- 
bourg gave  of  Henry's  courage,  goodness,  and  greatness  of  soul. 
"  Now,  truly,"  broke  in  the  admiring  pontiff,  "  I  grieve  that  I 
have  excommunicated  him."  And  when  the  envoy  expn 
the  confident  hope  of  the  king's  speedy  conversion,  Sixtus  un- 
hesitatingly declared  that,  in  that  case,  he  would  embrace  and 
comfort  him.1 

To  say  that  the  League  and  its  ally,  Philip  of  Spain,  were 
annoyed  is  but  to  express  half  the  truth.    They  were  indignant. 

they  were  enraged.  In  Paris  Sixtus  was  denounced 
nouncedasa  as  a  miser  that  wanted  only  to  enrich  his  relations  at 
cnconragerof  the  expense  of  the  public  treasure.2    In  Spain  a  Jesuit 

preacher  from  the  pulpit  declared,  that  not  only  the 
republic  of  Yenice  but  the  pope  himself  countenanced  the  her- 
etics.    At  Rome,  upon  the  very  day  on  which  Mayenne  indited 


1  Ranke,  History  of  the  Popes,  222. 

-  Nevers,  in  a  letter  to  Sixtus  V.,  prefixed  to  his  "  Traite  des  causes  et  des 
raisons  de  la  prise  des  armes,"  boldly  tells  him  of  some  of  the  accusations  laid 
to  his  charge,  as,  for  example,  that  he  winked  at  the  Duke  of  Savoy's  des 
on  Provence,  because  he  hoped  either  to  annex  a  part  of  it  to  the  Comtat  Ve- 
naissin,  or,  at  least,  to  induce  the  duke  to  hold  it  from  the  pope  as  lord  para- 
mount. Respecting  his  accumulated  wealth  he  remarks :  ''On  a  public  que 
quelquun  se  plaignant  du  pen  de  secours  que  V.  S.  donnoit.  an  prejudi 
la  promesse  que  Monsieur  le  Cardinal  de  Montalto  avoit  faite  de  vostre  part  a 
MM.  du  Conseil  General  de  l'union  estably  a  Paris,  on  luy  avoit  respondu  .pie 
les  cinq  millions  d'or  qui  sont  le  sang  et  la  moelle  de  vos  sujets,  n'avoient  pas 
este  ramassez  dans  le  chasteau  Sainct  Ange  [San  Angelo]  pour  les  employer 


1590.  THE  SIEGE  OF  PARIS.  211 

his  two  letters  to  Philip  and  to  Sixtus,  the  Spanish  ambassador 
undertook  to  lodge  with  the  irascible  pontiff  a  formal  protest  in 
his  master's  name  against  that  pontiff 's  behavior.  Six- 
Rgainsthis  "  tus  was  furious,  interrupted,  upbraided,  threatened, 
blustered ;  but,  after  all,  the  ambassador  succeeded  in 
telling  the  pope  on  bended  knee  all  the  unpalatable  things  he 
had  come  to  utter.  More  zealous  for  the  faith  than  the  so- 
called  Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ,  Philip,  by  the  mouth  of  his  am- 
bassador, demanded  that  Sixtus  should  declare  all  "  Navarre's  " 
adherents  indiscriminately  excommunicate,  and  pronounce 
"  Navarre  "  himself  incapable  of  holding  the  crown  of  France 
under  all  circumstances  and  forever.  "If  not,"  said  the  am- 
bassador, "  the  Catholic  king  will  renounce  his  allegiance  to 
your  holiness ;  for  he  cannot  suffer  the  cause  of  Christ  to  be 
ruined." ' 

Meantime,  quite  indifferent  to  the  change  that  had  taken 
place  in  Sixtus,  his  legate,  Cardinal  Cajetan,  now  at  a  safe  dis- 
tance, pursued  his  old  way  undisturbed,  and  urged  the  Parisians 
to  persist  in  relentless  hostility  to  the  Huguenot  king. 

That  king,  having  lost  the  chance  of  taking  his  capital  by  a 
single  blow,  tardily  moved  to  the  south  of  the  city  and  took 
Henry  lays  Corbeil  and  Melun  on  the  upper  Seine,  and  Lagny  on 
siege  to  Paris,  the  Marne,  together  with  some  more  distant  points — 
Crecy-en-Brie,  Montereau,  Provins.  It  was  evident  that  Henry 
had  not  idly  placed  his  hand  upon  the  sources  of  supply  of  hun- 
gry Paris,  and  that  but  a  slight  tightening  of  his  grasp  would 
be  necessary  to  make  the  citizens  feel  their  folly  in  neglecting 
betimes  to  provide  themselves  with  a  good  store  of  the  neces- 
saries of  life.  The  assurances  of  speedy  victory  with  which 
Mayenne  and  the  preachers  had  fed  the  credulous  populace  had 
had  the  effect  of  leading  them  to  forego  the  most  ordinary  pre- 
cautions.    The  moment,  however,  the  citizens  saw  the  hated 

a  soustenir  la  cause  de  Dieu,  mais  bien  pour  enrichir  vos  parents,  et  donner 
moyen  a  ceux  qui  espouserout  Mesdames  vos  niepces,  d'acquitter  leurs  debtes." 
As  the  letter  is  dated  August,  1590,  Sixtus  probably  died  before  it  reached 
Rome.  It  is  printed  at  the  head  of  the  second  volume  of  the  Memoires  de 
Nevers. 

1  Ranke,  History  of  the  Popes,  222-224. 


212     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Cii.  XL 

prince  calmly  settling  down  at  the  bridge  of  Charenton,  close  to 
the  confluence  of  the  principal  rivers,  they  awoke  from  their 
dream  of  fancied  security.  "  Paris  is  a  great  body  that  cannot 
long  endure  the  inconveniences  of  a  siege,"  Mayenne  wrote  to 
Philip  the  Second,  only  eight  days  after  the  battle  of  Ivry,  and 
the  truth  of  the  statement  was  now  to  be  put  to  the  test  of  ex- 
perience.1 

The  Parisians  made  good  use  of  the  short  respite  allowed 
them  by  Henry's  tardiness.     They  elected  the  Duke  of   Ne- 
mours governor  of  the  city.     Provisions  were  hastily 

Active  prepara-  i        •       r  i  •    ii        1  i         t  i 

tionsofthe       brought  in  trom  the  neighborhood.     It  was  perhaps 

Parisians  . 

characteristic  of  the  times  and  of  the  country  that 
over  against  three  thousand  hogsheads  of  wheat,  oats  and  other 
grain  thus  introduced,  there  figured  in  the  account  more  than 
ten  thousand  hogsheads  of  wine.  The  fortifications,  too,  were 
not  forgotten.  Walls,  in  places  so  ruinous  that  the  people  were 
in  the  habit  of  clambering  over  them  in  preference  to  going 
around  by  the  gates,  were  repaired  and  strengthened.  All  the 
cannon  that  had  graced  the  ramparts,  with  the  exception  of  a 
single  one,  had  been  taken  away  to  be  used  in  recent  battles,  and 
had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The  Parisians  set  them- 
selves so  vigorously  to  work  that,  before  many  weeks,  they  mus- 
tered sixty -five  pieces  of  the  rude  kind  in  use  toward  the  close  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  The  display  of  devotion  to  the  cause  of 
the  League  was  great.  The  poor  labored  at  the  public  works,  the 
rich  contributed  of  their  means.  On  all  sides  it  was  agreed 
that  Paris  should  never  submit  to  a  heretical  king.  A  frenzy 
took  possession  of  all  classes.  The  preachers  were  especially 
distinguished  for  their  zeal,  thundering  from  the  pulpit  against 
Henry  of  Bourbon — that  was  the  most  courteous  designation 
they  ever  applied  to  him — and  extolling  the  piety  of  resistance 
to  his  claims.  Keither  in  church  nor  in  street  did  any  one  dare 
contradict  them — a  circumstance  that  creates  no  surprise  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  more  than  a  score  of  persons  had  been  summa- 
rily put  to  death  without  judge  or  form  of  trial,   or  had  been 

1  "  C'est  un  gros  corps  qui  ne  peult  supporter  longteinps  les  incomuioditoz 
d'un  siege."     Mayenne  to  Philip  II.,  March  22,  159U,  De  Croze,  ii.  4U5. 


1590.  THE  SIEGE  OF  PARIS.  213 

thrown  into  the  Seine,  for  the  mere  suggestion  that  it  would  be 
better  to  make  peace  with  the  victor  of  Ivry. 

On  the  seventh  day  of  May  the  Sorbonne — the  "  sacred  fac- 
ulty of  theology,1'  as  it  loved  to  be  styled — on  being  consulted 
The  sorbonne  by  the  municipal  officers  as  to  whether,  should 
He^o^Bou?-  "  Charles  the  Tenth "  die,  or  resign  in  favor  of 
"  Henry  of  Bourbon,"  the  latter  ought  to  be  recog- 
nized as  legitimate  king,  rendered  a  long  decision  in  the  nega- 
tive. That  very  day  Henry  of  Bourbon  encamped  before  the 
city,  from  the  Porte  Saint  Antoine  and  the  Bastile,  to  the  Porte 
Montmartre,  and  the  next  day  "  Charles  the  Tenth  " — other- 
wise called  Cardinal  Bourbon,  expired  at  Fontenay-le-Comte,in 
Poitou.     The  former  fact  interested  the  Parisians,  at 

Death  of  old  t-i-ii  o  i  i  •       i 

cardinal Bour- present,  more  than  did  the  latter  ;  tor  the  "heretical 
king "  promptly  burned  every  windmill  on  the  hills 
about  the  capital,  and  reduced  the  citizens  to  the  dreary  use  of 
mills  worked  by  hand  or  turned  by  horses,  and  the  horses  were 
presently  needed  for  other  purposes. 

It  was  not  long  before  a  serious  problem  confronted  those 
in  authority.  How  long  would  the  existing  provisions  hold 
out '(  A  careful  census  was  made — more  accurate,  we  may 
believe,  than  any  previous  attempt  at  enumerating  the  popula- 
tion. The  largest  city  of  France,  some  said  of  Christendom, 
was  found  to  contain  two  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  souls.1 
At  a  pound  of  bread  a  day,  the  supply  of  grain  might  last  a 
month  from  date,  that  is,  from  the  twenty-sixth  of  May.  Paris 
was  no  place  for  beggars  and  useless  persons.  Thirty  thousand 
such  had  been  ordered  to  leave  the  city,  but  the  order  had  been 
negligently  executed  ;  and  now,  when  the  supernumeraries  at- 
tempted to  go  they  were  driven  back  by  the  besiegers. 

It  was  all-important  to  keep  up  the  enthusiasm  of  the  people : 
so  their  piety  and  their  worldly  hopes  were  in  turn  appealed 
to.  One  day  it  was  a  grand  ecclesiastical  procession  that  showed 
itself,  with  Pose,  bishop  of  Senlis,  at  its  head  as  commander- 
in-chief,  and  monks  and  friars,  from  grave  Carthusian  to  sordid 


:  So  says  Lestoile,  ii.  16,  but  Pierre  Corneio  makes  the  number  only  a  round 
200,000.     Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  303. 


214      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Cii.  XT. 

Franciscan,  walking  four  abreast,  each  order  marshalled  by  its 
own  prior.  A  halbert  or  an  arquebuse  in  one  hand,  a  crucifix 
in  the  other,  the  members  of  this  "church  militant,''  as  its 
admirers  called  it,  passing  in  review  before  the  papal  legate,  pre- 
sented a  singular  mixture  of  the  churchman  and  the  soldier: 
for  though  the  gown  was  trussed  up  and  the  cowl  thrown  back, 
the  color  of  the  dress  betrayed  the  wearer's  profession,  despite 
helmet  and  breastplate.  The  only  mishap  that  marred  the 
scenic  effect  was  the  result  of  the  awkwardness  of  one  of  the 
good  fathers  in  handling  his  gun,  and  Cardinal  Cajetan,  having 
had  his  almoner  shot  dead  at  his  side,  might  certainly  be  par- 
doned for  requesting  that  no  more  salutes  should  be  fired  in  his 
presence.  Meanwhile  the  people  were  fed  on  the  constant  assur- 
ance that  help  was  on  its  way,  that  Philip  would  soon  have  an 
army  at  their  gates ;  and  in  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  assertion, 
the  empty  farce  of  sending  and  receiving  pretended  messen- 
gers to  and  from  Parma  in  the  Netherlands  was  sedulously 
kept  up  for  the  popular  benefit. 

But  enthusiastic  preaching — even  that  of  Father  Pierre 
Cristin,  likened  for  his  eloquence  to  Demosthenes  himself — 
pro  ess  of  could  not  feed  empty  stomachs.  Food  became  more 
the  famine.  an(j  more  scarce.  The  rich,  renouncing  unattainable 
luxuries,  were  reduced  to  oaten  bread,  and  to  the  flesh  of  asses, 
mules  and  horses.  The  poor  could  not  even  afford  these  viands, 
for  they  had  not  the  opportunity  to  earn  even  a  Hard,  and  arti- 
cles of  food  once  cheap,  or  even  rejected  with  disdain,  now 
commanded  extravagant  prices.  An  uninviting  porridge  made 
of  bran  was  all  they  could  procure  for  themselves.  Even  the 
scanty  alms  in  money  occasionally  doled  out  seemed  an  empty 
mockery.  The  Spanish  ambassador,  one  day,  as  he  passed  by 
the  parliament  house  in  company  with  the  Archbishop  of 
Lyons,  met  a  crowd  of  poor  people  crying  for  hunger,  and 
bade  his  attendants  throw  them  handfuls  of  halfpence  coined 
with  the  Spanish   arms.     But  the  multitude  hardly 

Visitation  of  l  .   1        1  *  i         •      «•     i      ' 

the  religious    took  the  trouble  to  pick  them  up.     uAh,  sir,    they 
piteously  exclaimed,  "  throw  us  bread,  for  we  are  dy- 
ing of  hunger."     The  incident  had  one  good  effect ;  it  led  to 
an  enforced  visitation  of  the  monastic  and  other  crreat  estab- 


1590.  THE  SIEGE   OF   PARIS.  215 

lishments.  The  rector  of  the  Jesuits  tried  to  beg  off ;  but  the 
prevot  des  marchands  administered  a  severe  rebuke.  "  Your 
prayer,  master  rector,"  said  he,  "  is  neither  civil  nor  Christian, 
lias  it  not  been  found  necessary  that  all  that  have  grain  should 
offer  it  for  sale,  in  order  to  meet  the  public  need  ?  Why  should 
you  be  exempted  from  this  visitation  ?  Is  your  life  of  greater 
price  than  ours?"  When  the  abashed  rector  reluctantly  ad- 
mitted the  officers  into  the  Jesuit  house,  they  found  that  the 
prudent  members  had  a  store  of  wheat  and  hay,  of  biscuit  and 
salt  meat,  that  would  have  lasted  them  a  full  year.  Others 
had  been  scarcely  less  provident.  The  members  of  the  Capu- 
chin order,  an  order  at  that  time  not  over  sixty-five  years  old, 
seemed  to  have  forgotten  the  stringent  vows  of  poverty  dis- 
tinguishing them  even  from  the  parent  order  of  St.  Francis. 
The  people  who  had  understood  that  the  Capuchins  lived  only 
upon  daily  alms  and  distributed  whatever  remained  over  night 
to  the  poor,  were  scandalized  when  they  discovered  their  house 
well  furnished  with  food.  The  result  of  the  investigation  was 
that  the  monks  were  forced  to  share  their  supplies  with  the 
destitute.  An  enumeration  of  the  dwellings  of  the  poor  re- 
vealed the  fact  that  there  were  twelve  thousand  three  hundred 
houses  coming  under  this  designation.  In  seven  thousand  and 
three  hundred  a  little  money  was  still  to  be  found ;  the  inmates 
of  five  thousand  had  neither  bread  nor  money.  Thereupon  it 
was  ordered  that,  for  the  space  of  a  fortnight,  the  ecclesiastics 
should  give  to  the  extremely  poor  gratis,  and  to  the  others  on 
presentation  of  a  token  stamped  with  the  municipal  arms,  a 
pound  of  bread  a  day  for  each  person.  The  appointed  term 
over,  famine  pressed  with  redoubled  force.  Prayers  and  lit- 
anies, eight  days'  devotions,  processions  multiplied.  Yows 
were  made.  The  citizens  gathered  in  the  Hotel  de  Yille,  voted 
to  send  a  lamp  and  a  boat  of  silver  to  Our  Lady  of  Lo- 
retto,  in  case  of  deliverance.  Still  the  price  of  food  steadily 
advanced.  Nothing  was  cheap  any  longer,  Lestoile  tells  us, 
but  sermons. 

In  the  village  that  clustered  around  the  neighboring  abbey 
church  of  Saint  Denis,  matters  were  even  worse.  The  populace 
were  reduced  to  rations  of  four  ounces  of  bread  a  day.     Happily 


216     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  XL 

Saint  Denis  capitulated  on  the  ninth  of  July,  and  the  Parisians 
had  only  themselves  to  think  about.1 

And  now  men  bethought  them  of  Sancerre  and  its  marvellous 
experiences  of  seventeen  years  before ;  and  doubtless  Jean  de 
Lery's  story  of  the  famine  became  a  very  serviceable  "  cookery 
book  for  the  besieged."  The  Roman  Catholics  of  Paris  learned 
The  besieged  from  the  Huguenots  of  Sancerre  the  art  of  making 
tostrangT186  the  verv  refuse  of  the  city  a  means  of  sustaining 
food.  human  life.     Dogs,  cats,  rats  and  mice  were  eagerly 

sought  for  and  devoured.  Decoctions  of  herbs  took  the  place 
of  wine,  and  were  sold  on  the  squares  which  but  a  few  weeks 
ago  had  echoed  to  the  cry  of  good  Malmsey.  Presently  re- 
course was  had  to  the  skins  of  animals,  first  rendered  soft  by 
being  soaked  and  boiled  in  water.  Money  would  hardly  buy 
for  the  rich,  when  ill,  the  most  essential  delicacies.  A  man  was 
lucky  if  a  crown  of  silver  would  secure  a  pound  of  bread.  A 
pound  of  butter,  usually  worth  four  sous,  commanded  thirty 
times  that  sum.  For  a  single  egg  more  was  asked  than  the 
amount  of  a  laboring  man's  wages  for  a  day.  Men,  women  and 
children  were  dying  in  the  streets — one  hundred  and  fifty  or  two 
hundred  every  twenty-four  hours.  "  I  have  seen  the  poor  eat- 
ing dead  dogs  all  raw  in  the  streets,"  says  Pierre  Oorneio.  "  I 
have  seen  others  devouring  the  entrails  that  had  been  cast  into 
the  gutter  ;  others  mice  and  rats  that  had  been  similarly  thrown 
away."  Expedients  still  more  revolting  were  resorted  to.  In 
a  company,  at  an  earlier  time  in  the  siege,  Don  Bernardino, 
much  to  the  disgust  of  some  present,  recounted  how  that  in  a 
city  besieged  by  the  Persians,  bread  had  been  manufactured  of 


1  While  in  Saint  Denis,  Henry  the  Fourth  took  occasion  to  enter  the  abbey 
church,  and  inspect  the  sepulchres  of  the  kings  and  queens  of  France. 
Standing  near  the  tomb  of  Henry  the  Second,  he  noticed  with  particular  satis- 
faction that  since  his  last  visit  Catharine  de'  Medici  had  been  laid  at  rest 
beside  her  husband.  Doubtless  remembering  well  the  time  of  the  Conference 
of  Nerac,  when  the  late  queen  mother  waged  war  against  him  "asa  lioness." 
the  years  when  she  would  neither  rest  quietly  in  her  own  bed  nor  permit  him  to 
rest  in  his,  the  king  observed  to  himself,  but  in  tones  quite  audible  to  those 
about  him,  that  it  was  just  the  best  place  for  her — "  0  quelle  est  bien  la  !  '' 
Lestoile,  ii.  23. 


1590.  THE  SIEGE  OF   PARIS.  217 

human  bones  reduced  to  powder.  Xow  the  abominable  experi- 
ment was  tried  in  Paris  with  remains  disinterred  from  the  Cime- 
tiere  des  Innocents.  The  people  made  a  grim  jest  of  it  and 
called  it  Madame  de  Montpensier's  bread,  but  all  that  tasted 
of  it  died.  The  horrible  story  is  no  fiction.  "I  saw  it  with 
my  owm  eyes,"'  writes  Corneio ;  while  Lestoile  informs  us  that 
he  long  kept  a  piece  of  the  duchess's  bread  among  his  curious 
relics.  In  one  instance  at  least,  a  wretched  mother  is  said  to  have 
subsisted  for  some  days  upon  the  salted  flesh  of  her  own  dead 
children.  These  children  had  died  of  hunger  ;  but  there  were 
other  children  whom  the  German  lansquenets,  maddened  by  pri- 
vation, hunted  down  like  dogs  in  the  streets,  and  killed  and  ate.1 
Meanwhile  Mendoza  and  Cajetan,  with  the  cohort  of  preach- 
ers, endeavored  to  keep  up  the  people's  courage,  giving  freely 
of  their  money  and  of  such  food  as  they  could  dispense. 
What  was  lacking  the  legate  made  up  with  indulgences,  assuring 
every  one  that  death  in  so  holy  a  cause  w7as  a  sure  passport  to 
paradise.  But  the  growing  restiveness  of  the  populace,  more 
and  more  distinctly  clamoring  for  bread  or  peace,  could  not  be 
cardinal  repressed.  At  last  a  council,  to  which  the  leading 
STenArch-d  nobles,  the  parliament,  and  the  chief  burghers  wrere 
onSshs°ePnttoLy  invited,  found  it  necessary  to  yield  so  far  to  a  move- 
ment now  becoming  formidable,  as  to  depute  Cardinal 
Gondy,  Bishop  of  Paris,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons  to  visit 
Henry  of  Bourbon,  and  ascertain  whether  some  universal 
peace  for  the  entire  kingdom  could  not  be  secured.     Now,  as 

1  The  two  best  and  fullest  narratives  are  that  of  Lestoile  (Edition  Michaud 
and  Poujoulatj,  ii.  15-30,  and  that  of  Pierre  Corneio.  entitled  "  Discours  bref  et 
veritable  des  choses  plus  notables  arrivees  au  siege  memorable  de  la  renommee 
ville  de  Paris,  et  defense  d'icelle  par  monseigneur  le  Due  de  Nemours,  contre 
leRoy  de  Xavarre,"  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  296-325.  The  Leaguer  Cor- 
neio's  story  must  be  read  in  connection  with  two  other  relations,  written  by 
loyalists,  inserted  in  the  same  collection  (iv.  326-337,  and  337-340),  one  of 
which,  "  Brief  traite  des  miseres  de  la  ville  de  Paris,"  is  particularly  valuable. 
The  accounts  given  by  De  Thou  and  other  historians  are  derived  from  these 
sources  almost  exclusively.  M.  Alfred  Franklin  has  republished  (Paris,  1876) 
an  interesting  contemporary  French  translation  of  an  Italian  relation,  from  a 
MS.  in  the  Mazarin  Library,  under  the  title,  "  Journal  du  siege  de  Paris  en 
1590,  redige  par  un  des  assieges." 


218     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  XL 

this  same  Henry  of  Bourbon  was  the  prince  whom  the  pope 
had  expressly  excommunicated,  as  not  only  a  heretic  but  a 
relapsed  heretic,  declaring  him  incapable  of  succeeding  to  the 
throne  of  France,  the  two  prelates  were  naturally  solicitous,  lest 
in  undertaking  the  negotiations  with  him  they  should  bring 
upon  themselves  the  censures  of  the  church.  They  applied  to 
the  legate  for  a  full  discharge,  but  Cajetan  would  not  grant  one 
until  he  had  obtained  from  three  doctors  of  theology  a  favor- 
able reply  to  the  questions  he  submitted  to  them.1  The  envoys 
next  sought  a  safe-conduct  from  the  king,  to  meet  him  at  Saint 
Denis ;  but  Henry  graciously  granted  them  an  audience  nearer 
the  capital,  in  the  old  abbey  of  Saint  Antoine  des  Champs, 
whither  he  himself  rode,  with  a  goodly  retinue  of  a  thousand  or 
twelve  hundred  gentlemen.  The  venerable  ecclesiastical  estab- 
lishment where  the  meeting  took  place  stood  about  two-thirds 
of  a  mile  from  the  Bastile  and  from  the  gate  to  which  it  gave  its 
name,  on  the  road  to  the  Bois  de  Vincennes.  The  city  has  long 
since  taken  the  abbey — now  transformed  into  a  hospital  — and 
its  spacious  gardens,  into  its  ever-widening  embrace. 

It  was  between  noon  and  one  o'clock  that  the  envoys  entered 
the  cloisters.  To  their  respectful  greeting  the  king  returned  a 
kindly  welcome,  and  conducted  them  to  an  upper  room,  to  hear 
the  message  they  brought.  Meantime  the  Huguenot  gentlemen 
of  Henry's  suite  crowded  close  upon  their  monarch  and  his 
guests,  in  a  manner  that  somewhat  excited  the  surprise  of  the 
latter.     But  the  Bearnais's  native  wit  readily  found  an  excuse 


1  The  doctors  consulted  were  Panigarole,  Tirius,  rector  of  the  Jesuits,  and 
Robert  Bellarniin,  the  most  celebrated  controversialist  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  has  ever  produced,  whom  Sixtus  had  sent  with  his  Legate  into  France. 
The  points  submitted  were:  "  Whether  persons  surrendering  a  city  to  an 
heretical  prince,  by  reason  of  the  necessity  of  famine,  are  excommunicated  ? 
Whether  in  going  to  an  heretical  prince  in  order  to  convert  him.  or  in  order 
to  better  the  condition  of  the  Catholic  Church,  they  incur  the  excommunica- 
tion pronounced  by  the  bull  of  Sixtus  the  Fifth  ? "  The  doctors  replied  : 
"Negative,  quod  non  incurrunt."  Recueil  de  ce  qui  s'est  passe  en  la  con- 
ference des  Sieurs  Cardinal  de  Gondi  et  Archevesque  de  Lion  avec  le  Roy. 
reprinted  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  340-347-  This  account  was  written, 
as  appears  from  its  statement,  on  the  7th  of  August,  the  next  day  after  the 
conference. 


1590.  THE   SIEGE   OF   PARIS.  219 

for  the  apparent  want  of  decorum,  in  the  circumstance  that  his 
fearless  braves  were  more  used  to  the  melee  of  the  scene  of 
conflict  than  to  the  nice  etiquette  of  court  receptions.  "  Be  not 
astonished,"  said  he  to  the  prelates,  "  if  I  am  so  hard  pressed  ; 
I  am  still  more  hard  pressed  when  I  enter  into  battle."  '  A 
word  from  their  master,  following  this  flattering  speech,  made 
the  attendants  part  and  leave  a  clear  passage. 

The  cardinal-bishop  was  chief  spokesman  on  the  side  of  the 
League.  lie  depicted  in  lively  colors  the  miserable  condition 
of  France,  which  had  induced  the  Parisians  to  send  the  present 
deputation  to  his  majesty  to  beg  him  to  apply  a  remedy,  and, 
that  the  peace  might  be  general,  to  permit  them  to  go  and  con- 
fer with  the  Duke  of  Mayenne.  Moreover,  to  enforce  his  re- 
quest, he  warned  the  king  that  Paris  might  imitate  the  desper- 
ate courage  of  the  city  of  Ghent,  or  the  endurance  which  lit- 
tle Sancerre  had  displayed,  in  defence  of  life  and  religion. 
Henry  heard  him  out  very  patiently  ;  he  even  made  no  positive 
objection  to  recognizing  their  credentials,  though  but  a  simple 
determination  of  sundry  deputies  held  in  the  Chambre  Saint 
Louis,  wherein  he  was  styled  merely  King  of  Navarre.  But  he 
absolutely  refused  to  have  his  city  of  Paris  undertake  the  office 
of  mediator.     "  I  would  gladly  give  a  finger  to  have  a  battle ;  I 

would  give  two  fingers  for  a  general  peace ;  but  I  can- 
ply  to  the      not  grant  what  you  ask."     Besides,  he  objected  on  the 

score  of  humanity  to  the  delay  entailed  by  negotia- 
tions for  a  general  peace.  The  number  of  deaths  was  already 
great ;  but  if  the  famine  must  continue  eight  or  ten  days  longer, 
ten  or  twenty  thousand  lives  more  might  be  sacrificed.  "I  am 
the  true  father  of  my  people,"  Henry  exclaimed,  "I  am  like  the 
true  mother  whom  Solomon  judged.  I  would  almost  rather  have 
no  Paris,  than  have  it  all  in  ruins  after  the  destruction  of  so 
many  poor  people.  Not  so  with  the  partisans  of  the  League. 
No  wonder;  they  are  all  Spaniards  or  Hispaniolized."  He 
touched  upon  the  daily  loss  incurred  by  the  faubourgs  of  Paris, 


1  "  Ne  trouvez  estrange  si  je  suis  ainsi  presse,  encores  davantage  aux  batailles." 
Recueil  de  ce  qui  s'est  passe  en  la  conference  des  Sieurs  Cardinal  de  Gondi  et 
Archevesque  de  Lion  avec  le  Roy.     Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  340. 


220     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  XL 

and  addressing  himself  to  Gondy  individually,  he  said :  "  You, 
cardinal,  ought  to  have  compassion.  These  are  the  sheep  of 
your  fold  ;  for  the  smallest  drop  of  their  hlood  you  will  have  to 
give  an  account  before  God.  And  so  will  you,  too,  Archbishop 
of  Lyons,  who  occupy  the  rank  of  primate  over  all  the  other 
bishops.  I  am  not  much  of  a  theologian,  but  I  know  enough  to 
tell  you  that.  God  does  not  expect  you  thus  to  treat  the  poor 
people  whom  He  has  intrusted  to  your  care,  especially  for  the 
sake  of  gratifying  the  King  of  Spain,  Bernardino  Mendoza,  and 
the  legate.  You  will  have  your  feet  well  scorched  for  it  in  the 
other  world.  How  do  you  expect  to  convert  me  to  your  religion, 
if  you  make  so  little  account  of  the  lives  and  salvation  of  your 
flock  ?     It  is  giving  me  poor  proof  of  your  sanctity  !  " 

The  archbishop  did  not  relish  the  imputation  of  being  turned 
into  a  Spaniard ;  but  he  must  have  been  somewhat  confounded 
Philip's  claim  when  the  king  produced,  in  evidence  of  the  disloyalty 
to  Paris.  0f  tne  LeagUe5  an  intercepted  letter  of  Philip  the 
Second  wherein  the  writer  had  the  effrontery  to  recommend 
that  measures  be  taken  to  preserve  for  him  "  his  city  of  Paris."' 
inasmuch  as,  should  he  lose  it,  his  prosperity  would  be  seriously 
affected.1 

The  cardinal  undertook  to  make  an  insincere  apology  for  the 
attempt  to  treat  for  a  general  peace.  Should  Paris  yield  and 
admit  the  king,  its  doom  would  be  sealed.  It  would  at  once  be 
besieged  by  the  united  forces  of  the  King  of  Spain  and  the 
Duke  of  Mayenne,  and  most  probably  be  captured  ;  at  any  rate, 
three-fourths  of  its  population  would  desert  it.  Thereupon  the 
king's  anger  took  fire.  He  looked  proudly  round  upon  his  nobles 
and  said  :  "  Let  the  King  of  Spain  come  with  all  his  allies  !  By 
God,  we  shall  beat  them  thoroughly  and  show  them  clearly  that 
the  French  noblesse  knows  how  to  defend  itself.*'  Then  cor- 
recting himself:  "I  have  sworn,  contrary  to  my  custom;  but  I 
tell  you  again  that,  by  the  living  God,  we  will  not  endure  that 
disgrace."     The  gentlemen  who  stood  by  emulously  took  the 


1  "  Au  surplus,  je  vous  monstrerai  une  lettre,  par  laquelle  le  Roy  d'Espaene 
mande  qu'on  lui  conserve  sa  ville  de  Paris ;  car,  s'il  la  perd,  ses  affaires  vont 
tres  mal."     Ibid.,  iv.  343. 


1590.  THE  SIEGE  OF  PARIS.  221 

oath  each  for  himself,  while  Henry  proceeded  to  inform  the  prel- 
ates that,  should  Paris  be  deserted  by  a  few  bad  citizens,  he 
would  himself  speedily  repeople  it  with  one  hundred  thousand 
trusty  men,  both  rich  and  loyal.  In  fact,  wherever  he  went  he 
would  make  his  Paris. 

The  interview  was  long  and  animated.  While  Henry  refused 
the  request  of  the  prelates,  he  offered  Paris  free  forgiveness,  if 
its  citizens  would  pledge  themselves  to  surrender  the  place — un- 
less it  were  succored,  or  a  general  peace  were  made — within 
eight  days.  "If  they  accept  this  condition,"  said  he,  "in  eight 
days  they  will  be  in  quiet.  If  they  expect  to  wait  to  capitulate 
when  they  shall  have  but  one  day's  provisions,  I  shall  let  them 
dine  and  sup  that  day,  on  the  morrow  they  will  have  to  give  them- 
selves up  with  the  halter — corde — about  their  necks,  instead 
of  the  mercy  -  miserieorde — which  I  offer  them.  I  shall  take 
away  the  wretchedness — misere — and  they  will  have  the  corde." 
Nor  did  Henry  fail,  before  he  concluded,  to  take  exception  to 
the  comparison  the  cardinal  had  instituted  between  the  Paris- 
ians, on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Protestant  inhabitants  of  Sancerre 
and  the  determined  burghers  of  Ghent,  on  the  other.  The 
people  of  Sancerre  subjected  themselves  to  unheard-of  priva- 
tions, because  they  were  threatened  with  the  loss  of  their  lives, 
their  property,  and  their  faith  ;  whereas  their  rightful  monarch 
was  only  desirous  of  restoring  to  the  Parisians  the  lives  that 
Mendoza,  the  Spaniard,  was  taking  away  from  them  by  famine. 
As  to  religion,  all  the  Roman  Catholic  princes  and  gentlemen 
present  could  abundantly  testify  what  treatment  they  received, 
and  whether  their  consciences  were  constrained  or  their  freedom 
of  worship  was  interfered  with  in  the  slightest  degree.  So  also 
was  it  with  regard  to  their  possessions.  The  illustration  drawn 
from  Ghent  wras  equally  bad.  "  The  Parisians,"  said  Henry, 
"  have  sufficiently  shown  what  amount  of  courage  they  have,  in 
allowing  their  suburbs  to  be  taken.  I  have  five  thousand  gen- 
tlemen here  that  will  not  suffer  themselves  to  be  treated  in 
Ghentish  fashion."  ] 

1  I  have  followed  in  the  text  the  account  above  referred  to,   "  Recueil  de  ce 
•qui  s'est  passe,"  etc.,  upon  which  the  narratives  of   De  Thou  and  others  are 


222      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XL 

Whatever  might  be  said  of  the  patient  endurance  of  the 
Parisians,  the  facts  of  the  case  certainly  seemed  fully  to  bear 
out  the  charge  of  pusillanimity  and  cowardice  brought  against 
them  by  the  king.  The  besieging  force,  though  considerably 
increased  during  the  progress  of  the  siege,  never  approached 
the  total  number  of  twenty  thousand  men — perhaps  did  not 
exceed,  at  any  one  time,  fifteen  thousand.  1  The  Duke  of 
Nemours,  on  the  other  hand,  had  within  the  city  some  eight 
pusillanimity  thousand  mercenary  troops;  while  of  the  citizens 
of  the  capital,  themselves  fully  fifty  thousand  were  men  in  the  prime 
of  life,  one-third  of  them  possessed  of  some  military  training, 
all  of  them  furnished  with  arms,  all  raised  to  the  highest  pitch 
of  enthusiasm  by  the  ardent  declamations  of  their  preacher.-. 
Yet  no  sortie  of  any  magnitude  was  ever  attempted.  After 
the  seizure  of  the  faubourgs  the  royal  army  was,  of  necessity, 
so  distributed  that  only  a  small  detachment — not  over  twelve  or 
thirteen  hundred  men— could  be  spared  to  blockade  each  gate. 
Against  any  one  of  these  a  fearless  and  skilful  leader  of  brave 
troops  could,  at  any  moment,  have  hurled  an  overwhelming 
mass  of  twenty  thousand  men,  and  these,  in  all  human  probabil- 
ity, must  have  been  victorious  before  the  half-hour  or  more  had 
expired  which  would  have  been  needed  to  bring  reinforcements 
from  the  neighboring   gates.     But  the  Parisians  made  no  such 


chiefly  based.  Motley  (United  Netherlands,  iii.  00-08)  gives  some  iuterest- 
ing  particulars  respecting  the  interview  derived  from  a  letter  of  W.  Lyly  to 
Sir  E.  Stafford,  despatched  the  day  after  that  on  which  the  "Recueil"  tru 
written. 

1  De  Thou,  vii.  049,  makes  it  consist,  on  its  arrival  before  Paris,  of  10,000 
foot  jind  3,000  horse,  but  states  that  it  received  large  accessions,  especially 
the  4,000  foot  and  1,000  horse  brought  from  Guyenne  by  Viscount  Turenne. 
The  Recueil  des  choses  memorable?,  p.  721,  and  Corneio,  Memoires  de  la 
Ligue,  iv.  304,  make  the  original  numbers  12,000  foot  and  3.000  horse; 
Corneio  swells  these  subsequently,  ibid.,  iv.  320.  to  12.000  or  13, Odd  foot  and 
3,500  horse.  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  233,  says  14,000  foot  and  2,500  horse. 
But  Henry  IV.  himself,  in  a  letter  to  Montmorency,  dated  St.  Denis,  July  22, 
1590,  speaking  of  his  army  as  containing  "  la  plus  belle  troupe  de  noblesse 
ensemble  qu'il  y  eut  peut-estre  de  trente  ans  en  France."  makes  it  cone 
rather  over  than  under  3.000  gentlemen  serving  on  horseback,  0,000  Swiss  and 
German  lansquenets,  and  more  than  0,000  French  foot  soldiers.  Lettres  mis- 
sives, iii.  228. 


1590.  THE  SIEGE   OF   PARIS.  221$ 

dash.  They  preferred  to  see  themselves  hemmed  in  by  an  in- 
ferior number  of  Huguenots  and  royalists,  to  making  a  sin- 
gle desperate  venture.  Thirteen  thousand  persons — some  said 
thirty  thousand  persons — died  of  actual  starvation,  or  of  the 
diseases  engendered  by  want ;  still  the  besieged  did  not  move 
from  the  fatal  spot,  with  arms  in  their  hands,  determined  to 
free  themselves  of  the  besiegers  or  die  in  the  attempt.1 

The  loss  of  life  would  have  been  still  greater  had  it  not  been 

for  the  humanity  of  Henry  the  Fourth.     In  their  desperation, 

manj-  of  the  besieged  let  themselves  down  over  the  walls,  into 

the  ditch,  and  made  their  way  to  the  royal  outposts. 

Tenderheart-  .      '  J  J  r 

ednessofthe  lhe  cries  and  the  tears  or  these  poor  persons  accom- 
plished with  his  majesty  what  entreaty  had  been  un- 
able to  effect  earlier  in  the  siege.  He  granted  permission  to 
the  number  they  asked — three  thousand,  it  is  said— to  pass 
through  his  lines ;  but,  in  point  of  fact,  more  than  four  thou- 
sand took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  gain  the  open  coun- 
try.2 The  Duke  of  Xemours  was  glad  to  have  them  go  ;  for  he 
was  relieved  of  the  necessity  of  trying  to  find  food  for  so  many 
famishing  men.  But  there  were  others  who  condemned  Henry's 
mercy  as  ill-timed,  and  prejudicial  to  his  own  interests.  In 
fact,  we  are  admitted  just  here  to  a  very  instructive  view  of 
Queen  Eliza-  *he  contrast  between  the  characters  of  two  of  the 
bethnndsfauit.prjncjpa]  actors  upon  the  stage  of  history  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  Queen  Elizabeth,  now  fifty-seven  years  of  age, 
was  so  far  from  showing  any  feminine  compassion  for  the  per- 


1  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  233-236,  discusses  the  matter  in  a  very  forcible 
mariner. 

a  Brief  traite  des  miseres  de  la  ville  de  Paris,  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv. 
331.  "En  fin  son  bon  naturel  rompit  la  barriere  des  loix  militaires.  II  ac- 
corda  premierement  passeport  pour  toutes  les  femmes  et  filles  et  enfans ;  et 
pour  tous  les  escoliers  qui  voudroyent  sortir  ;  il  augmenta  depuis  pour  les 
religieux  et  gens  d'eglise.  II  passa  a  la  fin  jusques  a  ceux  qui  avoyent  este  ses 
plus  cruels  ennemis,  et  eut  soin  que  sortans  ils  fussent  humainement  recueillis 
et  receus  en  toutes  ses  villes  ou  ils  se  sont  voulus  retirer  "  Sommaire  dis- 
cours  de  ce  qui  est  advenu  en  l'armee  du  roy,  depuis  que  le  due  de  Parme  s'est 
joinct  a  celle  des  ennemis  jusques  au  quinziesme  de  ce  mois  de  Septembre,  in 
Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  351.  Tins  last  document  was  prepared  for  despatch 
to  all  royal  governors,  etc. 


224      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  XL 

ishing  men,  women,  and  children  of  Paris,  that  she  scolded  her 
ally  roundly  for  his  folly  in  letting  so  many  persons  go  out  of 
the  city,  whose  presence  would  have  compelled  its  surrender. 
"  If  God,  in  His  merciful  favor,  shall  grant  you  victory,"  she 
wrote  to  him,  "  I  swear  to  you  ( if  I  dare  say  so )  it  will  be 
more  than  by  your  carelessness  you  deserve."1  And  Henry 
the  Fourth,  more  than  a  score  of  years  her  junior,  was  com- 
Henry  defend8  pelled  to  justify  himself,  and  endeavor  to  prove  that 
his  conduct.  ne  }ia(j  jn  no  wjse  contributed  to  lengthen  out  the 
siege.  The  Duchess  of  Montpensier  and  her  partisans  would 
have  remorselessly  allowed  the  poor  refugees,  if  driven  back, 
to  perish  before  their  eyes,  as  so  many  others  had  died.  He 
asserted,  moreover,  that,  even  had  the  royal  permission  been 
denied,  the  fugitives  would  have  contrived  to  pass  the  lines. 
The  most  stony  heart,  among  the  soldiers,  must  have  melted 
at  the  sight  of  so  much  wretchedness.3 

It  was  not  the  only  time  that  the  nature  of  Henry  of  Bour- 
bon, full  of  humane  feeling,  stood  in  advantageous  relief  over 
against  the  unsympathetic  and  calculating  character  of  the  daugh- 
ter of  Henry  Tudor. 

By  the  close  of  August  it  seemed  that  the  supply  of  food  was 
almost  absolutely  exhausted,  and  that  in  two  or  three  days  the 
city  must  certainly  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  king.  At  this  criti- 
cal moment,  however,  the  coming  of  the  Prince  of  Parma  was 
announced.  Reluctantly  yielding  to  the  importunity  of  Mayenne 
and  to  the  positive  orders  of  Philip  the  Second,  Alexander  Far- 
opportune  nese  na(^  Passe(l  tne  northern  borders  of  France,  and, 
tEukeof  by  an  almost  direct  march,  marching  through  Guise, 
Parma.  Soissons  and  La  Ferte-Milon,  had  reached  Meaux,  on 

the  Marne,  twenty-eight  miles  east  of  Paris.  He  brought  with 
him  from  Flanders  a  force  almost  precisely  as  large  as  that  with 
which  Henry  had  begun  the  siege  of  his  capital — three  thousand 
horse  and  twelve  thousand  foot ;  but,  including  the  troops  of 


1  u  Si  Dieu  vous  donne  la  victoire  de  sa  grace  misericordieuse,  je  vous  jure  que 
ce  sera  plus  que  (si  je  l'ose  dire)  par  vostre  nonchaillauce,  pourres  meriter  " 
Queen   Elizabeth  to  Henry  IV.    (without  date),  in   Lettres   missive?,  iii.    '?v~ 

2  Henry  IV.  toBeauvoir,  October,  1590,  Lettres  missives,  iii.  %2S").     - 


1590.  THE  SIEGE  OF  PARIS.  225 

Mayenne,  with  whom  he  now  formed  a  junction,  he  had  at 
his  command  an  army  numbering  five  thousand  horse  and 
eighteen  thousand  foot.1  His  object  was  evident.  He  had  not 
come  so  much  to  fight  the  battles  of  the  League  as  to  relieve 
Paris  of  the  sore  famine  that  was  crushing  it,  and  his  first 
blow  must  be  struck  at  Lagny  and  Corbeil,  which  prevented  the 
supplies  from  the  upper  Marne  and  Seine  from  entering  the  city. 
Opinions  differed  much  among  the  counsellors  of  the  king  as 
to  the  course  to  be  adopted.  Should  Henry  continue  the  siege, 
or,  abandoning  the  fruits  of  so  many  months'  labor,  should  he 
per  lexit  &°  out  an^  meefc  Parma  upon  the  open  field  ?  It  was 
of  the  king.  a  grave  question,  and  it  was  to  be  decided  at  once. 
Henry  had  sent  forward  a  detachment  of  cavalry  as  far  as  to 
Claye,  within  ten  miles  of  Meaux,  and  these  had  driven  in  the 
outposts  of  the  enemy.  La  Noue,  with  the  experience  of  a  life- 
time to  guide  him,  advocated  the  plan  of  retaining  a  portion  of 
the  royal  army  in  its  present  position  about  Paris,  and  continu- 
ing the  siege  without  intermission.  The  rest  he  would  have 
thrown  forward  to  Claye,  where,  in  a  narrow  place,  with  the  Bi- 
beronne,  a  little  tributary  of  the  Marne,  in  front,  and  woods  and 
a  marsh  in  close  proximity,  even  an  inferior  force  would  enjoy 
many  advantages  for  holding  at  bay  or  defeating  a  larger  one. 
At  any  rate,  it  could  delay  the  enemy's  progress,  until  in  an 
emergency  the  whole  body  of  the  royalist  army  might  be  col- 
lected together.2  Others  held  that,  in  view  of  the  cowardice 
shown  by  the  Parisians,  a  very  trifling  band  of  Huguenots  would 
be  sufficient  to  keep  the  present  positions,  so  as  to  allow  most  of 
the  army  to  make  the  advance.  Duplessis  Mornay  regarded 
three  thousand  men  as  all-sufficient  to  hold  the  Universite,  or 
southern  half  of  Paris,  in  a  state  of  siege ;  and  this  was  the  on- 
ly side  from  which  provisions  could  be  introduced  during  the 
king's  advance.3     Yiscount  Turenne  reaching  the  royal  camp 


1  Motley,  United  Netherlands,  iii.  74-76. 

2  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,    iii.   238  ;  Memoires  de   Villeroy  (Edition  Michaud- 
Poujoulat).  160.     See  Davila,  475. 

3  Memoires  de  Madame  de  Mornay  (Edition  of  the  Historical  Society  of  France) 
197. 

Vol.   II.  — 15 


226      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XL 

just  at  this  juncture,  indeed,  offered  to  guard  the  posts  which  the 
king's  troops  might  leave,  with  the  three  or  four  thousand  arqwc- 
busiers  and  the  few  hundred  horsemen  he  had  brought  from 
Guyenne.1  But  Marshal  Biron  thought,  or  pretended  to  think, 
otherwise.  He  magnified  the  danger  of  a  general  sor- 
ron's  bad  tie  of  a  score  of  thousand  armed  men  from  the  walls 
of  Paris  upon  the  handful  of  royalists  left  to  keep 
them  in.  He  ridiculed  the  idea  that  a  French  detachment  at 
Claye  could  find  the  opportunity  to  inflict  damage  upon  the 
well-disciplined  Spaniards  under  Parma's  command.  He  urged 
the  advantage  arising  from  the  courage  which  a  general  advance 
would  inspire  in  the  breasts  of  the  king's  followers.  It  is  need- 
less, perhaps,  to  inquire  whether  the  marshal  erred  in  judgment, 
or,  as  is  more  probable,  purposely  chose  to  lengthen  out  the  war 
in  revenge  for  the  king's  failure  to  confer  upon  him,  according 
to  promise,  the  sovereignty  of  the  county  of  Perigord.'  Such 
charges  of  disloyalty  might  be  dismissed  with  incredulity  and 
treated  with  contempt,  were  it  not  but  too  certain  that  a  very 
considerable  party  among  the  Poman  Catholics  of  the  royal 
army  were  impatient  of  the  delay  in  the  monarch's  promised  in- 
struction, and  would  prefer  that  Paris  should  be  relieved  rather 
than  see  it  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  Huguenot  king.  It  was 
notorious  that  breadstuffs  found  their  way  into  the  capital,  from 
time  to  time,  through  the  connivance  of  officials  in  Henry's  em- 
ploy, whose  lukewarmness  was  equalled  only  by  the  readiness 
they  displayed  to  receive  bribes  at  the  hands  of  the  besie_ 
Unfortunately  the  marshal's  advice  coincided  but  too  fully 


1  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  238. 

2  Ibid.,  ubi  supra  ;  Memoires  de  Sully,  c.  31. — M.  Poirsou  (Histoire  du  regne 
de  Henri  IV.,  i.  251)  does  not  hesitate  to  style  Marshal  Biron  "  the  true  author 
of  the  deliverance  of  Paris." 

3  "  Plus  vous  vous  souviendrez,"  says  Sully  in  his  remarkable  letter  of 
reminder  to  Henry  IV.,  "  comme  quelque  temps  apres  vous  voulustes  i  - 
d'affamer  Paris,  mais  vous  fustes  si  mal  servy  par  tous  ceux  qui  ne  vouloient 
point  de  roy  huguenot  dans  Paris,  que  tous  les  gouverneurs  des  places  voisines 
laissans  passer  les  vivres  a  puissance,  et  les  chefs  des  troupes  assiegeantts  les 
laissans  entrer  librement  dans  Paris,  pour  de  1' argent  et  des  babioles,  ils  leur 
donnerent  moyen  etloisir  d'attendre  un  secours,  pour  estre  fournis  de  vivres." 
Memoires  de  Sully,  chap.  49  of  part  ii.  (vol.  iv.  pp.  205,  206,  ed.  of  1003.) 


L590.  THE  SIEGE   OF   PARIS.  227 

with  Henry's  inclinations.  Siege  operations  were  less  to  his 
taste  than  the  prospect  of  a  battle  which  might  once  for  all  de- 
cide the  issue  of  the  war.  Not  but  that,  the  night  before  he  with- 
drew his  troops  from  before  Paris,  his  anxiety  was  great.  And 
his  anxiety,  as  was  so  often  the  case  with  this  strangely  incon- 
sistent prince,  displayed  itself  in  professions  of  deep  sorrow  for 
his  sins  and  earnest  supplications  for  the  divine  mercy,  which 
struck  the  sole  bystander  as  utterances  of  genuine  feeling. 
"When  Duplessis  Mornay,  returning  from  the  discharge  of  a 
commission  intrusted  to  him  by  his  majesty,  entered  Henry's 
chamber  at  Saint  Denis,  he  found  him  wakeful  and  with  mind 
and  heart  interested  in  religious  matters.  He  rose  from  his 
bed,  and,  calling  for  the  Huguenot  psalter,  read  several  of 
Marot's  and  Beza's  translations,  apposite,  as  he  thought,  to  the 
circumstances  ;  then  requested  Duplessis  Mornay  to  offer  up  a 
prayer.  The  king's  devotion  was  evidently  sincere  *  it  was,  to 
all  appearance,  very  superficial  and  evanescent.1 

The  story  may  be  apocryphal  that,  having  once  made  up  his 
mind  to  follow  Biron's  advice,  the  gay  monarch  laughingly 
charged  La  None  with  having  given  a  contrary  suggestion 
through  fear  that  he  might  again  fall  a  prisoner  into  the  hands 
of  the  enemy,  and  be  obliged  to  endure  another  captivity  in 
Flemish  dungeons.2  However  this  may  be,  on  the  thirtieth  of 
August  Parma  learned,  greatly  to  his  relief,  that  the  King  of 
Henry  with-  France  had  withdrawn  all  his  troops  from  before 
paS!  Aujjst  Paris  ;  and  that,  instead  of  holding  the  strong  position 
of  Claye,  he  had  drawn  up  his  army,  as  though  for 
battle,  full  ten  miles  nearer  Paris,  on  the  plain  of  Bondy.  As 
Parma  did  not  make  his  appearance,  Henry  advanced  the  next 
day  to  the  village  of  Chelles,  confident  that  now  at  length  he 
would  have  an  opportunity  to  cross  swords  with  the  only  living 


1  "Revenant  a.  St.  Denis,  il  trouva  le  roy  tout  seul  en  son  lict,  qui  l'enten- 
dant,  se  leva  en  robe  de  nuict,  s'enquit  ce  qu'il  avoit  faict,  puis  luy  demanda 
ses  Psalmes,  en  leut  quelques  uns  a  propos  de  ce  qui  se  presentoit,  et  luy  com- 
manda  de  faire  la  priere  ;  et  est  certain  que  le  roy  estoit  en  anxiete  et  mons- 
troit  un  cceur  douloureux  de  ses  fautes  et  avoit  un  grand  recours  a  la  mis  ri- 
corde  de  Dieu  "  Memoires  de  Madame  de  Mornay  (Edition  of  the  Historical 
Society  of  France),  198.  -  Lestoile,  ii.  31. 


228      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Gil  XL 

man  whose  military  reputation  equalled  or  surpassed  his  own. 
In  this  hope,  however,  he  was  doomed  to  disappointment. 
Parma  had  no  name  to  make  ;  his  exploits  elsewhere  had  earned 
him  sufficient  renown.  Least  of  all  was  he  disposed  to  risk  an 
unnecessary  engagement.  It  is  said — and  we  have  no  reason  to 
doubt  the  truth  of  the  assertion — that,  at  sight  of  the  French 
army  he  was  surprised,  almost  alarmed,  and  reproached  May- 
enne  for  having  deceived  him  as  to  the  foe  whom  he  was  to 
meet.  Certainly  all  accounts  agree  that  so  goodly  an  array  of 
soldiery  as  that  which  stood  ready  to  fight  under  Henry's 
standards  had  rarely,  if  ever,  been  seen.  The  number  did  not, 
indeed,  greatly  differ  from  that  of  Parma's  own  army — there 
were  five  or  six  thousand  horsemen  and  eighteen  thousand  foot 
soldiers — but,  with  four  thousand  French  nobles  and  gentlemen 
of  the  best  houses  in  the  realm,  with  six  princes,  two  marshals 
of  France,  and,  as  the  patriotic  chronicler  assures  us,  more 
captains  and  experienced  chiefs  than  all  the  rest  of  Christendom 
could  afford,  the  Huguenot  king's  army  presented  an  appearance 
such  as  Parma  could  best  appreciate.1  Xor  were  the  Protestant 
soldiers  and  their  Poman  Catholic  comrades  in  the  king's  army 
less  remarkable  for  their  loyalty  than  for  their  fine  appearance. 
Any  man  among  them  would  have  deemed  it  a  privilege  to  die 
for  his  sovereign  and  "the  good  cause."  If  all  had  not  the 
Brave m.  de  wit,  many  had  the  zeal  of  that  grand  Huguenot,  M.  de 
camsy.  Canisy,  mentioned  by  Henry  the  Fourth  in  one  of 

Ms  letters,  who  took  part  in  a  furious  attack  upon  Yique,  in 
Lower  Normandy.  "  It  would  have  been  a  complete  triumph," 
writes  the  monarch,  "  had  it  not  cost  Canisy  a  second  wound  in 
the  mouth.  This  does  not,  however,  stop  his  brave  talk.  'Do 
not  pity  me,' said  he  to  La  Noue,  'for  I  have  still  enough  to  cry 
"  Long  life  to  the  king ! "  when  we  shall  have  gotten  into  Paris.' " a 
In  vain  did  Henry,  in  the  spirit  of  a  chivalry  now  quite  out 

1  Compare  the  statements  of  the  "Sommaire  Discours,"  in  the  Memoires  de 
la  Ligue,  iv.  354,  with  the  eulogistic  phrases  of  Sir  Edward  Stafford  in  a  letter 
to  Lord  Burleigh,  as  quoted  by  Motley,  United  Netherlands,  iii.  79. 

2  4*  Mais  bien  disoit-il  a  la  Noue  de  ne  le  plaindre  point,  puisqu'il  lui  en 
restoit  assez  pour  crier  '  Vive  le  Roy '  quand  nous  serons  dedans  Paris. "  Henry 
IV.  to  the  Countess  de  Grammont,  April  5,  1590,  Lettres  missives,  iii.  187. 


1590.  THE   SIEGE   OF  PARIS.  229 

of  vogue,  send  to  his  enemy  a  challenge  in  due  form,  and  in- 
vite him  to  decide  the  present  disputes  in  set  battle.  Parma, 
who  had  strongly  entrenched  himself,  quietly  made  answer  to 
the  effect  that  he  would  fight  or  abstain  from  fighting  precisely 
as  it  might  suit  his  interests.1  It  evidently  suited  him  better 
just  now  not  to  fight.  So  for  an  entire  week  the  Spanish  general 
kept  Henry  and  his  Huguenots  chafing  under  their  disappoint- 
ment at  being  unable  to  cross  swords  with  their  opponents, 
and  then,  after  bringing  out  a  part  of  his  army  as  though  for 
battle,  quietly  but  rapidly  shifted  the  main  body  and  brought 
it  opposite  to  the  town  of  Lagny,  which  lay  a  little  to  his  rear, 
separated  only  by  the  stream  of  the  Marne.  Important  as  was 
Parma  takes  Lagny,  the  fortifications  were  of  the  old  style  and 
such  as  not  to  be  capable  of  withstanding  even  the 
primitive  kind  of  artillery  then  in  use.  A  bridge  of  boats  had 
been  provided  while  the  Flemish  army  lay  apparently  inactive, 
and  the  troops  that  crossed  upon  it  were  ready  to  rush  in  and  take 
possession  of  the  place,  the  moment  that  a  practicable  breach 
had  been  made  by  the  cannon.  With  the  capture  of  Lagny 
and  the  butchery  of  its  garrison,  Parma  accomplished  one  part 
of  his  mission.  The  Marne  was  once  more  open.  Meantime 
Henry  seems  not  to  have  guessed  his  adversary's  design  until  it 
was  half  executed.  The  distance  was  considerable,  there  was, 
we  are  assured,  a  dense  fog,  and  a  strong  wind  from  the  south- 
west prevented  him  from  hearing  the  detonation  of  the  cannon. 
Even  when  made  aware  of  what  was  going  on,  he  was  power- 
less to  hinder  it.  A  marsh  lay  between  him  and  Lagny  upon 
the  right  bank  of  the  river,  not  to  speak  of  the  part  of  Parma's 
forces  that  had  been  left  to  oppose  his  advance  ;  while,  had  he 
been  able  promptly  to  transfer  his  army  to  the  left  bank  of  the 
Marne,  not  only  would  he  have  reached  Lagny  too  late  to  avert 


'Parma's  answer  to  Henry's  herald,  according  to  Corneio,  was  this :  "Tell 
your  master  that  I  have  come  to  France  by  the  command  of  the  king  my  mas- 
ter, in  order  to  put  an  end  to  and  extirpate  the  heresies  of  this  kingdom  ; 
which  thing  I  hope  to  accomplish,  with  the  grace  of  God,  before  I  leave.  And 
if  I  find  that  the  shortest  road  to  this  end  is  to  give  battle,  I  shall  give  it  and 
compel  him  to  accept  it,  or  else  I  shall  do  whatever  may  seem  to  me  to  be  for 
the  best."     Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  323. 


230     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE     Cn.  XL 

the  catastrophe,  but  he  would  have  left  the  road  to  Paris  clear 
to  the  enemy.1 

Annoyed  at  the  mistake  he  had  committed,  and  vexed  that 

his  rival  in  arms  had  so  easily  gained  a  signal  advantage  under 

his  very  eyes,  Henry  undertook,  two  days  later,  to  re- 

Failureofa  / .     J_  *  '  J  '  , 

nocturnal  at-   trieve  his  fortunes  by  a  nocturnal  attempt  upon  .Paris. 

tack  on  Paris.  _  °  ,  *•         * 

Ladders  had  been  provided,  and  that  portion  or  the 
walls  was  chosen  for  the  escalade  which  was  farthest  distant 
from  the  scene  of  the  recent  movements  of  the  two  armies.  It 
was  believed  that,  if  any  part  of  the  walls  would  be  negligently 
guarded  at  such  a  time,  it  would  be  the  space  between  the  gates 
of  Saint  Germain  and  Saint  Jacques,  on  the  southwest  of  the 
city.  And  so  it  proved.  Indeed,  had  it  not  been  for  the  vigi- 
lance of  the  Jesuits  of  the  college  hard  by  the  Porte  Saint  Jac- 
ques, the  escalade  would  have  been  successful.  As  it  was,  the 
first  man  who  reached  the  top  received  so  vigorous  a  blow  from 
an  old  halberd  in  the  hands  of  one  of  the  fathers,  that  he  fell 
back  into  the  ditch,  and  it  fared  no  better  with  the  others  who 
followed  his  example.  The  ladders  were  too  few  and  too  short 
for  the  purpose,  and  before  a  sufficient  number  of  men  could 
be  placed  upon  the  walls  to  make  a  stand,  the  citizens  had  heard 
the  alarm  and  flocked  to  the  spot  in  overwhelming  numbers. 
The  night  was  dark,  but  great  quantities  of  lighted  hay  were 
thrown  down  into  the  dry  moat,  and  the  assailants,  who  were 
thus  seen  to  number  some  two  thousand  men,  rinding  their 
enterprise  frustrated,  at  once  withdrew.' 


1  Corneio,  Discours  bref  et  veritable,  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  323  .  B 
maire  Discours,  ibid.,  iv.  353-355  ;  Recneil  des  choses  memorables,  730,  731  ; 
De  Thou,  vii.  659-6G3;  Agrippa  d'Aubign /■,  iii.  240,  241  ;  Davila.  470-474 

2  Pierre  Corneio,  in  his  account  of  the  siege  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  so 
many  valuable  details,  gives  a  circumstantial  narrative  of  the  escalade  M  - 
moires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  323-325).  The  official  circular  sent  out  to  the  governors, 
etc.,  barely  refers  to  it  (ibid.,  iv.  355).  There  is  a  slight  discrepancy  of  dates, 
the  former  making  the  capture  of  Lagny  to  have  occurred  on  Friday.  Sept.  7th 
(•'  le  vendredi,  veille  de  Nostre  Dame  de  Septembre  " — sc.  Nativity  of  the  Holy 
Virgin),  and  the  escalade  on  Monday  morning,  Sept.  10th,  and  the  latter  placing 
each  event  one  day  later.  Motley,  however  (United  Netherlands,  iii.  v 
certainly  as  incorrect  in  assigning  the  date  of  Sept.  15th  to  the  assault  on 
Lagny,  as  is  De  Thou  (vii.  663)  in  giving  it  that  of  Sept.  6th. 


L590.  THE   SIEUE   OF    PARIS.  231 

Meantime,  the  moment  the  king  went  off  to  meet  Parma, 
provisions  had  poured  into  the  city.  The  famishing  citizens, 
„  .  but  a  few  hours  ago  reduced  to  the  utmost  verge  of 

Pari.*  pro-  O  o 

vMoned.  despair,  again  beheld  the  welcome  sight  of  bread. 
The  poor  could  now  buy  freely  what  had  been  beyond  the  reach 
of  all  except  the  very  richest.  The  fall  in  the  price  of  grain 
was  well-nigh  as  sudden  and  as  unexpected  as  that  which  fol-> 
lowed  the  famine  of  Samaria.  A  sceptical  Parisian  might  well 
have  exclaimed,  on  the  eve  of  Parma's  approach  :  "  Behold,  if 
the  Lord  would  make  windows  in  heaven,  might  this  thing  be  ? " 
— had  a  prophet  foretold  that  the  "  setier"  of  wdieat,  which  then 
could  scarcely  be  bought  for  one  hundred  and  twenty  crowns, 
would  be  sold  within  a  few  days  for  three  or  four.1 

The  fall  of  Lagny  was  followed,  in  October,  by  the  capture  of 

Corbeil.     Before  he  once  more  turned  his  face  northward,  the 

Prince  of  Parma  had  freed  the  Seine,  as  well  as   the 

Capture  of  . 

corbeii  by  Marne,  iro in  the  deadly  grasp  ot  Henry,  it  is  true  that 
Alexander  Farnese  was  scarcely  gone  before  Givry, 
one  of  the  king's  most  active  generals,  recovered  both  Corbeil 
and  Lagny,  and  began  once  more  to  distress  the  capital.  Xone 
the  less  was  it  but  too  apparent  that  from  Henry's  magnificent 
victory  at  Ivry,  and  from  his  persevering  siege  of  Paris,  he  had 
reaped  the  most  meagre  harvest.  The  battle  had  indeed  exalted 
his  military  fame  and  given  him  an  unquestioned  place  among 
the  most  brilliant  commanders  of  his  time,  but,  instead  of  secur- 
ing for  him  the  possession  of  his  capital,  it  had  been  merely  the 
prelude  to  a  tedious  siege.  The  siege  itself,  after  leading  him 
to  the  very  threshold  of  success,  had  left  him  apparently  as  far 
from  ultimate  triumph  as  ever.  For  these  rebuffs  the  luke- 
warmness  or  actual  disloyalty  of  a  considerable  body  of  his  coun- 
sellors and  officers  was  responsible.  At  Mantes,  Marshal  Biron 
unfaithful-  and  Monsieur  d'O  compelled  him  to  fritter  away  a  pre- 
ernor°sf<?fOV  cious  fortnight,  whose  opportunities  could  never  be  re- 
cities.  covered.     During   the    siege,  governors  of  adjacent 

places  and  officers  who  would  have  been  sorry  to  see  his  majesty  in 
full  possession  of  his  realm  before  he  should  have  renounced  the 


1  Corneio,  ubi  supra,  iv.  325. 


232     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    On.  XL 

Huguenot  faith,  were  induced,  by  paltry  bribes  of  finery  and 
bawbles,  to  suffer  just  enough  food  to  be  smuggled  into  the  city 
to  enable  it  to  drag  out  an  existence  until  the  tardy  approach  of 
Parma.  In  the  last  hours  of  the  siege  the  baneful  influence  of 
Biron  again  came  in  to  cause  the  king  to  abandon  an  advan- 
tageous position,  and  to  prefer  the  plain  of  Chelles  to  the  more 
favorable  pass  of  Claye. 

Immediately  after  the  fall  of  Lagny,  and  some  weeks  before 
the  loss  of  Corbeil,  Henry  took  the  extraordinary  step  of  dis- 
banding the  greater  part  of  the  magnificent  army  which,  but 
a  few  days  before,  had  kindled  the  admiration  of  Alexander 
Farnese  and  of  Sir  Edward  Stafford.  Strange,  as  this  course 
mav  seem  to  us,  it  had  had  a  parallel  on  more  than 

Henry  gives  J  ■ ,  A  . 

a  furlough  to    one   occasion    during   the    previous   wars.     Ine  pre- 

his  troops.  *■  A 

text  was  that  the  country  about  fans  was  thorough- 
ly exhausted  and  could  furnish  no  adequate  supply  for  so  large 
a  body  of  troops ;  while  the  gentlemen,  serving  at  their  own 
charges,  had  long  since  come  to  the  end  of  the  little  outfit  they 
had  brought  with  them.  The  statement  was  not  unfounded ; 
yet  the  common  voice  of  the  people  was  not  far  wrong  when 
it  contrasted  with  this  inconstancy  the  generous  endurance  of 
the  city  of  Paris,  and  exalted  the  steadfastness  of  a  promiscu- 
ous rabble  of  men,  women,  and  children,  greatly  to  the  disadvan- 
tage of  a  noblesse  that  could  not  bring  itself  longer  to  put  up 
patiently  with  the  temporary  loss  of  a  few  of  the  ordinary  coin- 
forts  of  life.1 

Putting,  therefore,  good  garrisons  in  various  cities  of  the 
neighborhood  of  Paris,  and  despatching  the  Prince  of  Conty 
into  Maine,  Montpensier  into  Normandy,  Longueville  into 
Picardy,  Nevers  into  Champagne,  and  Aumont  into  Burgundy, 
to  watch  over  the  interests  of  the  crown  in  these  provinces, 
Henry  once  more  addressed  himself,  with  the  small  body  of 
troops  he  retained  about  his  person,  to  an  adventurous  war- 
fare.2 

When  Alexander  Farnese,  having  finished,  after  a  masterly 


1  De  Thou,  vii.  004-665. 

2  De  Thou,  ubi  supra. 


1590.  THE  SIEGE   OF   PARIS.  233 

fashion,  the  task  he  had  unwillingly  taken  upon  himself,  pre- 
pared to  return  to  Flanders,  the  king  promptly  determined  to 
Henry  follows  accompany  him  so  far  as  the  borders.  "  Our  Span- 
his  retreat in  iards,"  lie  playfully  wrote  to  Montmorency,  "  are 
from  France.  muc[l  honker  people  than  those  you  have  to  do  with  ; 
for  they  are  not  willing  to  put  their  host  to  any  farther  annoyance 
and  talk  of  withdrawing.  They  have  done  me  so  little  harm 
that  I  regard  myself  obliged  to  do  them  the  honor  of  escorting 
them  home."  '  Accordingly,  such  was  the  pertinacity  with 
which  he  attached  himself  to  the  retiring  columns,  and  such  in- 
jury was  he  able  to  inflict,  that  Parma's  movement  assumed  the 
form  of  a  retreat,  and  Henry,  by  his  apparent  pursuit,  gained 
so  much  credit  with  the  Picards  that  not  a  few  castles  and 
towns  came  over  to  his  side.2 

Meantime,  in  other  parts  of  France  the  arms  of  the  Hugue- 
nots had,  during  the  past  year,  met  with  some  signal  successes, 
The  war  in     beginning    with    an    important    victory    gained    in 

the  provinces.   Auvergne    upon    the  very  day    Qf    the    batt]e  0f  Ivry.3 

But  these  advantages  were  counterbalanced  by  serious  losses. 
It  was  difficult  to  determine  whether  the  fortunes  of  the  king 
or  those  of  the  League  were  on  the  whole  predominant  in  Brit- 
tany. If  the  able  Lesdiguieres  performed  remarkable  exploits 
in  Provence  and  Dauphiny,  and  even  made  his  way  across  the 
Alps  and  defeated  some  troops  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy  not  far 
from  Susa,  the  duke  amply  made  up  for  this  by  invading  the 
French  territory  and  making  a  pompous  entrance  into  the  city 
of  Aix,  where,  to  their  shame,  not  only  the  municipal  magis- 
trates, but  the  presidents  and  members  of  the  Parliament  of 
Provence  came,  each  in  the  order  of  seniority  and  rank,  to  kiss 
his  hand  and  to  swear  fidelity  to  him  as  protector  and  governor- 
general  of  the  province.4 

Marshal  Matignon  obtained,  by  peaceable  methods,  a  more 
substantial  triumph  for  the  king  in  the  great  province  of  Guy- 


1  Henry  IV.  to  Montmorency,  Escouy,   Nov.   4,   1590,  Lettres  missives,  iii. 
289,290. 

2  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  244  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  673,  etc. 

3  De  Thou,  vii.  623-7.  *  De  Thou,  vii.  681-7. 


234      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  XI 

enne  ;  for  he  persuaded  the  Parliament  of  Bordeaux,  which  had 
until  now  absurdly  retained  the  name  of  the  deceased  Henry 
the  Third  upon  its  official  seal,  to  recognize  the  authority  of 
Henry  the  Fourth,  and  to  issue  its  documents  in  his  name.  Yet 
even  this  concession  was  not  made  without  an  equivalent  on 

I  Henry's  part.  If  not  actually  purchased,  the  favor  of  the  Bor- 
delois  was  rewarded  by  a  solemn  declaration  of  the  king,  given 
Henry  aboi-  at  Mantes,  on  the  tenth  of  November,  whereby  he 
Sotestanthree  abolished  the  courts  of  justice  at  Saint-Jean-d'Angely, 
courts.  Bergerac  and  Montauban,  which,  though  established 

'  by  the  Huguenot  political  assembly  held  at  La  Itochelle  con- 
temporaneously with  the  second  states  of  Blois,  had  been  recog- 
nized by  Henry  of  Valois  at  the  time  of  his  reconciliation  with 
Henry  of  Navarre.1 

Thus  it  was  that  the  Huguenot  monarch  of  France  showed 
himself  quite  ready,  whenever  the  occasion  required,  to  sacri- 
fice the  interests  or  even  the  safety  of  the  men  who  had  fought 
under  his  standards  and  elected  him  protector  of  their  churches. 
True,  of  words  and  kind  assurances  Henry  showed  no  lack.  Less 
than  a  week  before  the  edict  was  signed  whereby  he  deprived 
the  southern  Huguenots  of  those  judicial  bodies  without  which, 
in  the  excited  state  of  the  public  feeling,  they  could  hop 
no  justice,  he  wrote  to  the  "  ministers  of  the  churches  of  Lan- 
guedoc,"  expressing  full  satisfaction  with  their  entire  conduct, 
and  begging  them  to  persevere  in  their  "devout  prayers  and 
supplications."  Spiritual  weapons,  he  thought,  would  he  more 
effectual  than  temporal  in  removing  the  evils  at  present  atnict- 
ine  France  ;  for  it  was  very  certain  that,  should  God's  anger  he 
appeased,  He  would  cause  the  arms  to  fall  from  the  hand-  of 
the  enemy.2  But  when  any  measure  was  proposed  for  the  relief 
of  the  Protestants,  there  was  a  strange  apathy,  amounting  t-> 
positive  reluctance.  Of  this  a  clear  proof  was  given  in  the  very 
month  in  which  this  letter  was  written. 


1  Anquez,   Histoire  des  assemblies  politiques  des  reformes  de   France,  129  ; 
De  Thou,  vii.  680,  681. 

2  Henry  IV.  to  the  Protestant  ministers  of  Languedoc,  Cerny,  November  4. 
1590.     Lettres  missives,  iii.  292,  293. 


1580.  THE  SIEGE   OF   PARIS.  235 

Keenly  alive  to  the  injustice  to  which  his  fellow-Protestants 

were  exposed,  Duplessis  Mornay,  with  the  king's  consent,  drew 

up  the  form  of  an  edict,  to  be  signed  by  him,  with  the 

Duplessis  Mor-      .  .  -    „  TT. 

nay  draws  up   view  or  adulating:  present  dinerences.     His  maiesty 

a  bill  for  the  ,       J  .         r       .   .  .  .      .  .  .   ,   . 

relief  of  the    was  made  to  reiterate  his  promise  to  hold,  within  a 

Protestants,  ..  .  .    .       ,..  /^1     .  .  .         1  , 

year,  a  council  to  winch  all  Christian  princes  should 
be  invited,  or,  in  case  this  should  be  impossible,  a  national 
council  or,  at  least,  an  assembly  of  holy  and  learned  men.  His 
hope  was  to  prove,  "  by  the  docility,  attention,  and  facility  he 
would  bring  to  his  instruction,  that  he  had  continued  until 
now  steadfast  in  his  religion,  not  through  vanity  or  obstinacy, 
but  solely  from  fear  of  offending  God."  It  was  ordered  that 
all  Roman  Catholics,  save  such  as  were  notorious  rebels,  should 
be  restored  to  their  rights  ;  and  that,  while  the  exercises  of  the 
Romish  religion  were  everywhere  restored,  those  of  the  Protes- 
tant religion  should  be  maintained  wherever  this  was  guaran- 
teed by  the  truce  between  the  late  king  and  the  King  of  Na- 
varre. But  the  cardinal  articles  of  the  proposed  edict  were  two, 
which  defined  the  rights  of  the  Protestants  more  distinctly. 
The  one  declared  the  edicts  of  1577  and  of  1580,  together  with 
the  interpretative  articles  of  Nerac  and  the  so-called  secret  arti- 
cles, to  be  in  force.  The  other  distinctly  repealed  the  pretended 
"  edicts  of  re-union  "  which  the  League  had  violently  extorted 
from  the  late  king  in  the  months  of  July,  1585  and  1588. 1 

The  efforts  of  Duplessis  Mornay  to  secure  the  consent  of  the 
royal  council  to  the  measure  were  crowned  with  success.  The 
chancellor,  Biron,  Aumont,  O,  and  all  who  were  present,  pro- 
nounced it  eminently  just  and  equitable.  The  document  re- 
ceived the  king's  signature.  Duplessis  Mornay  and  Chancellor 
Henry  at  fivst  Chiveriiy  were  commissioned  to  proceed  at  once  to 
afterwaTd  re-*  the  city  of  Tours,  and  use  their  influence  to  obtain 
cans  the  edict.  t^e  prompt  approval  and  registration  of  the  edict 
by  the  loyal  Parliament  there  in  session.  But  before  they  had 
reached  their  destination — in  fact  they  had  gotten  no  farther 


1  "Formulaire  de  la  declaration  pour  la  revocation  de  l'edict  de  juillet,  faict 
par  M.  Duplessis,"  Pont  St.  Fierre,  November,  1590,  inMemoires  de  Duplessis 


Mornay,  iv.  492-504. 


236     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     Cn.  XI 

than  Anet — the  chancellor  received  a  hastily  scrawled  letter  of 
four  lines  from  Henry,  bidding  him  return  and  defer  the  bus- 
iness until  some  future  occasion.  The  opponents  of  the  Prot- 
estants had  secretly  thwarted  a  scheme  of  such  manifest  justice 
that  they  were  ashamed  to  oppose  it  openly.1 

But  the  Huguenots  were  not  inclined  to  acquiesce  in  this 
delay  ;  least  of  all  was  the  able  author  of  the  proposed  edict  so 
disposed.  His  remonstrance  addressed  to  Henry  has  come  down 
to  us.  "The  revocation  of  the  two  edicts  of  July  (1585  and 
1588)  ought,"  he  remarks,  "  to  meet  with  no  opposition.  These 
edicts  were  extorted  from  the  crown  by  violence,  they  have  en- 
gendered the  extreme  calamities  at  present   subsist- 

A   remon-  .  .  -iii  1  •  1  i  a  • 

Btrance against  ing,  they  assassinated  the  late  king,  they  have  dis- 
honored the  nation,  and  confounded  the  state.  It  is 
disgraceful  to  have  tolerated  them  so  long,  seeing  they  declare 
the  reigning  monarch  incapable  of  holding  the  sceptre,  degrade 
the  princes  of  the  blood,  and  render  all  that  recognize  Henry 
the  Fourth  liable  to  impeachment.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
edict  of  pacification  of  1577  was  enacted  with  great  solemnity. 
All  the  princes  of  the  blood  took  part.  France  fared  well  in 
consequence  of  it.  All  the  king's  subjects  were  satisfied.  The 
lioman  Catholic  religion  was  maintained  in  its  dignity,  while 
provision  was  made  for  the  needs  of  the  Protestant  religion. 
In  sum,  the  matter  was  regarded  as  settled  and  not  to  be  re- 
opened. 

"  An  adjustment  of  the  rightful  claims  of  the  Huguenots," 
continues  Duplessis  Mornay,  "cannot  longer  be  deferred.  God 
has  given  the  king  extraordinary  tokens  of  His  favor,  and  lie 
must  be  recognized.  The  difficulties  are  all  on  man's  side:  they 
will  disappear,  if  we  invoke  and  serve  God.  It  was  much  far- 
ther from  the  proscriptive  ordinance  laid  down  as  a  fundamen- 
tal law  of  the  realm  to  the  royal  court,  than  it  is  from  the  edict 


1  "  Et  par  la  nos  adversaires  traverserent  ce  quils  eussent  eu  honte  de  ren- 
verser."  Vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  154,  155,  where  a  full  account  of  the  mat- 
ter is  given.  Pont  St.  Pierre,  where  the  edict  was  signed,  is  about  midway 
between  Rouen  and  Les  Andelys  ;  Anet.  where  the  commissioners  were  over- 
taken, lies  only  a  few  miles  beyond  the  battlefield  of  Ivry. 


1590.  THE  SIEGE   OF   PARIS.  237 

of  the  trnce  to  the  edict  of  pacification  of  1577.  Since  God 
brought  us  the  former  distance,  we  cannot  refuse  or  delay  to 
take  the  last  step.1 

"  We  are  told,  *  Let  the  Huguenots  have  patience  ! '  They  have 
patiently  endured  for  fifty  years  and  more  ;  they  will  be  patient 
Huguenot  st^  m  tne  king's  service,  for  they  are  his  subjects  and 
patience.  fi0  not  waver  in  their  affection.  But  it  is  not  for  the 
good  of  his  service  to  condemn  them  to  patience  in  such  a  mat- 
ter. If  they  were  willing,  the  king  ought  not  to  permit  it.  It 
is  his  duty  to  enkindle  religious  zeal.  Religion  is  extinguished 
in  men,  if  it  be  not  fostered.  Of  private  men  God  requires  only 
that  they  be  religious  themselves ;  of  those  born  for  the  good 
of  others,  He  demands  that  they  cause  their  subjects  to  serve 
Him. 

"  Some  say,  '  Matters  will  be  adjusted  with  the  Protestants, 
when  we  shall  come  to  treat  with  the  partisans  of  the  League.' 
This  is  iniquitous.  The  latter  have  warred  against  the  king  and 
require  peace  ;  the  former  need  only  to  be  delivered  from  the 
oppression  to  which  their  consciences  have  been  subjected. 
Besides,  what  patience  can  there  be  in  such  affairs  ?  Every  day 
children  are  born,  men  and  women  are  married,  some  one  dies. 
Shall  our  children  die  without  baptism,  shall  marriages  not  be 
solemnized,  shall  dead  bodies  lie  unburied?  To  pray  to  God 
for  the  king's  prosperity  in  a  gathering  of  three  families,  to  sing 
a  psalm  in  one's  shop,  to  sell  a  Testament  or  a  French  Bible — 
these  things  are  reckoned  crimes  by  the  judges,  and  every  day 
sentences  are  pronounced  because  of  them.  The  judges  allege 
that  they  are  bound  by  the  last  laws.  They  weigh  in  the  same 
scale  the  unobtrusive  offering  of  prayer  to  God  in  a  private 
room  for  the  king's  prosperity,  and  seditious  preaching  from 
the  pulpit  against  his  person  and  welfare. 

"  A  foreign  auxiliary  army,  composed  of  Protestants,  will  soon 
be  coming.  Foreign  princes  will  beg  his  majesty  to  restore  to 
his  subjects  their  religion.     It  will  be  little  to  the  credit  of  one 


1  "  II  j  avoit  trop  plus  loiiig  de  la  loi  fondamentale  jusques  a,  la  cour,  quMl 
n'y  a  par  de  l'edict  de  la  trefve  jnsques  a  l'edict  de  77  ;  et  si  Dieu  a  faict  Tung 
pour  nous,  nous  ne  lui  pouvons  ni  desnier  ni  dilayer  l'autre." 


238      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn.  XL 

that  is  '  Very  Christian  '  to  be  asked  to  do  his  duty  and  entreated 
to  satisfy  God's  honor.  The  princes  will  request  of  him  more 
than  it  is  in  his  power  to  give.  If  he  grant  the  request,  it  will 
be  to  recall  his  concession  later,  and  to  afford  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics reason  to  think  that  the  concession  was  extorted. 

"  It  is  occasion  for  thanksgiving  that  his  majesty  honors  God, 
whereas  his  predecessors  blasphemed  His  name.  But  should 
the  king's  subjects  behold  him  growing  cold  or  apathetic  in  his 
religion,  should  they  see  him  living  less  scrupulously  than  that 
religion  enjoins,  their  respect  for  him  will  diminish.  They  will 
The  king's  saJ  •  '  If  it  is  a  religion,  why  does  he  not  make  more 
inconsistency.  accormt  of  it  ?  If  it  is  no  religion,  why  does  he  not 
give  us  quietness  by  changing  it  ? '  "  ' 

Such  was  the  manly  remonstrance  of  one  of  the  clearest 
thinkers  of  the  period,  one  of  the  purest  souls  upon  the  earth. 

Henry's  Roman  Catholic  subjects  might  well  have  remem- 
bered these  pregnant  expressions,  and,  two  years  later,  after  the 
abjuration  so  lightly  made,  have  required  Henry  to  make  an- 
swer to  just  this  inquiry  :  If  your  Protestant  faith  amounted  to 
anything  more  than  a  mere  pretence,  why  did  you  not  hold  to 
it  more  stoutly,  and  practise  it  more  consistently?  If  it  ws 
empty  and  insincere  as  it  would  now  seem  to  have  been,  why 
not  have  spared  us  these  long  and  terrible  years  of  war.  rapine, 
and  disgrace  ? 

Meanwhile  the  position  of  the  Huguenots,  even  in  the  loyal 
portions  of  the  kingdom,  and  under  a  king  professing  their  own 
faith,  was  not  devoid  of  anxiety.  In  the  confused  state  of  leg- 
islation it  was  doubtful  what  their  civil  rights  really  were.  Of 
the  edicts  of  Henry  the  Third  only  those  that  proscribed  the 
Protestant  religion  were  in  force.  The  edicts  of  pacification,  of 
which  it  was  remembered  with  a  smile  that  each  of  them  had 
successively  been  enacted  with  solemnity  and  declared  to  be  ir- 
revocable and  perpetual,  had  long  since  been  abrogated  and  an- 
nulled.    The  lot  of  the  Protestants  had,  it  is  true,  been  tem- 


1  "  Discours  envoye  au  roy  en  mars  1591.  sur  ce  que  sa  niajeste  retardoit  la 
publication  de  la  declaration  ci-dessus,  faicte  par  M.  Duplessis,"  in  Memoires 
de  Duplessis  Mornay,  v.  36-41. 


1590.  THE   SIEGE   OF   PARIS.  239 

porarily  bettered  by  the  truce  between  the  late  king  and  the 
King  of  Navarre  ;  but  the  duration  of  the  truce  was  expressly 
limited,  and  the  term  had  expired.  No  wonder,  then,  that  ill- 
disposed  persons  pretended  to  deny  the  Huguenots  even  the 
slightest  relaxation  of  the  severities  to  which  they  had  been 
exposed  for  years.  At  Caen,  where  the  loyal  Parliament  of 
Normandy  sat,  despite  the  impotent  wrath  of  the  rival  court  at 
Rouen,  priests  and  monks  were  provoked  almost  beyond  endur- 
ance by  what  they  styled  the  audacity  of  the  heretics.  The 
hated  "preche"  was  frequented  with  little  attempt  at  secrecy. 
The  familiar  sound  of  Marot's  psalms  was  a^ain  heard 

The  Parlia- 

mentof  Nor-   in  the   streets  and  lanes.     It  was  even  apprehended 

mandy  and  .      .      ,        -p^ 

the  pVotes-      that  on  the  coming  feast  or  Corpus  Christi  the  1  rot- 

tants. 

estant  householders  would  decline  to  drape  their 
doors  and  windows  in  honor  of  the  holy  sacrament.  The  provo- 
cation was  enough  to  set  preaching  friars  at  their  old  work  of 
denunciation  from  the  pulpits  of  all  the  churches.  The  judges, 
quite  at  a  loss  how  to  act  under  the  circumstances,  applied  to 
the  king  for  instructions  as  to  what  it  was  his  good  pleasure 
to  command  respecting  the  exercise  of  the  Reformed  religion. 
Obtaining  no  answer  in  season,  they  calmly  proceeded  to  draw 
up  an  order  prescribing,  under  penalty  of  ten  crowns  for  dis- 
obedience, that  all  houses  be  draped,  all  shops  be  closed,  and 
all  labor  be  suspended  on  the  day  of  the  coming  festival.  When 
this  extraordinary  action  of  the  provincial  parliament  was  re- 
ported to  the  monarch,  together  with  sundry  other  acts  of 
petty  annoyance  to  which  the  Norman  Protestants  were  sub- 
jected, Henry  at  once  wrote  directing  that  the  provisions  of 
the  truce  granted  by  his  predecessor  be  regarded  as  still  in 
force,  until  such  time  as  he  might  have  the  opportunity  to  con- 
vene an  assembly  of  princes  and  other  competent  persons  to 
settle  the  questions  pertaining  to  the  general  peace  of  France. 
Not  even  so,  however,  were  the  judges  content  to  acquiesce  in  a 
system  of  toleration.  They  did,  indeed,  go  through  the  form 
of  resolving  to  send  a  deputation  to  the  king  to  explain  their 
motives  ;  but  none  the  less  did  they  repeat  their  order  the  next 
year,  in  advance  of  the  recurrence  of  Corpus  Christi  Day. 
Nay,  they  summoned  to  their  bar  one  Beaulard,  a  counsellor  in 


240      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XI 

the  presidial  court,  to  answer  for  his  insubordination  in  daring 
to  refuse  to  hang  tapestry  before  his  residence.  In  vain  did  the 
brave  lawyer  allege  his  faith  and  his  religious  scruples.  lie  was 
soundly  berated  for  the  bad  example  which,  as  judge  and  coun- 
sellor, he  had  set  to  the  other  inhabitants,  and  was  informed 
that  parliament  might,  if  it  so  pleased,  have  inflicted  a  severe 
fine  upon  him.  As  it  was,  he  escaped  with  the  payment  of 
twenty  crowns.  But,  while  willing  to  gratify  the  churchmen  of 
Caen  by  such  defiant  disobedience  of  the  royal  commands,  there 
were  some  acts  of  priestly  insolence  which  the  Parliament  of 
Normandy  saw  fit  to  rebuke.  Thus,  when  the  curates  and 
their  vicars  undertook  to  draw  up  careful  and  complete  lists  of 
all  the  Huguenots  who  had  abstained  from  draping  their  houses, 
the  prosecuting  officer  of  the  crown  received  a  peremptory  order 
from  the  supreme  court  to  take  no  account  of  the  lists,  and  to 
regard  the  priests  as  interested  parties  whose  unsupported  tes- 
timony could  not  be  received  against  their  adversaries.  The 
judges  would  allow  none  to  be  condemned  on  the  testimony  of 
others ;  though  quite  willing  that  a  few  of  the  more  prominent 
offenders  be  made  examples  of,  should  they  admit  their  own 
misdemeanor.1 


Any  historical  investigator  who  has  perplexed  himself  in  the  vain  endeavor 
to  find  a  particular  statement  which,  though  really  in  plain  sight,  has  seemed 
maliciously  to  elude  all  his  efforts  to  discover  it,  may  derive  comfort  from  the 
experience  of  Von  Polenz  in  his  description  of  the  battle  of  Ivry. 
The  story  of  The  incident  respecting  the  white  plume  of  Henry  of  Navarre, 
plume atlvry.  according  to  Von  Polenz  (iv.  G6G1,  lies  outside  the  domain  of  crit- 
icism, being  as  much  a  historical  embellishment  as  the  stories 
in  which  the  cane  of  Frederick  the  Great  and  the  hat  of  the  first  Napoleon 
figure.  As  to  the  king's  speech  to  his  soldiers  which  I  have  given  in  the 
text,  he  declares  that  it  is  found  in  no  original  historian.  Anquetil,  he  as- 
serts, took  it  from  Bishop  Perefixe's  panegyrical  biography  of  Henry  IV,  and 
in  this  had  the  support  of  a  popular  tradition  nearly  two  hundred  years  old. 


1  See  the  account  in  Floquet,  Histoire  du  Parlement  de  Normandie,  iii. 
548-556,  based  upon  the  secret  registers  ;  and  the  letter  of  Henry  IV. ,  of 
October  8,  1590.  The  first  action  of  the  parliament,  as  to  the  draping  of 
houses  on  Corpus  Christi  Day,  was  taken  June  20,  1590  ;  the  second,  June 
12,  1591.  It  was  three  days  after  this  last  date  that  the  priestly  denunciation 
received  a  rebuke. 


1590.  THE  SIEGE  OF  PARIS.  211 

In  a  note  Von  Polenz  informs  us  that  Sismondi,  it  is  true,  cites  D'Aubigne  as 
authority  for  the  king's  spirited  address,  but  adds  that  he  does  not  find  it  in 
D'Aubigne's  history.  "It  is  remarkable,''  he  proceeds  to  say,  "that  the 
address  is  not  given  by  De  Thou." — Now  it  happens  that  the  white  plume 
is  as  well  authenticated  as  any  point  pertaining  to  the  battle.  The  official 
account  of  the  minister  of  state  Forget — "  Discours  veritable  "  (Memoires  de 
la  Ligue,  iv.  265)— expressly  says  that  Henry  was  "  assez  remarquable  par  un 
grand  panache  blanc  qu'il  avoit  a  son  acoustrement  de  teste,  et  un  autre  que 
portoit  son  cheval  " — a  statement  which  is,  as  usual,  repeated  almost  or  quite 
word  for  word  by  the  careful  "  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,"  page  718,  and 
by  Matthieu,  Histoire  des  derniers  troubles,  liv.  5,  fol.  18.  Moreover,  the 
king's  address  is  to  be  found  in  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  231  ;  and  if  De  Thou 
does  not  insert  in  his  history  the  very  words  of  the  king,  he  gives  their  sub- 
stance (vii.  617):  "II  est  vrai  que  le  Roi  .  .  .  avoit  fait  mettre  ce 
jour-la  sur  son  casque  une  aigrette  blanche,  afin  d'etre  reconnu  de  plus  loin  ; 
et  il  avertit  en  meme  temps,  qu'au  cas  que  son  drapeau  f  ut  abattu,  comme  il 
arrive  assez  souvent,  on  prit  garde  a  l'aigrette  blanche  et  qu'on  la  sui vit. " 

Vol.  II.— 16 


242     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XII. 


CHAPTEK    XII. 

GROWTH  OF  THE  TIERS  PARTI,  AND   HENRY'S   DIFFICULT  POSI- 
TION. 

A  year  and  a  half  had  elapsed  since  the  accession  of  Henry 
to  the  throne  of  France,  but  he  seemed  to  be  about  as  far  as 
ever  from  the  undisputed  possession  of  his  kingdom.  His  very 
victories  were  robbed  of  their  fruit  by  the  conspiracy  of  hi- 
loyal  captains.  His  rebellious  capital,  when  at  the  point  of  star- 
vation, had  been  enabled  to  hold  out,  through  the  negligence 
or  connivance  of  unfaithful  guardians  of  places  that  nominally 
held  for  him.  His  armies  were  full  of  those  who  avowed  the 
purpose  never  to  acquiesce  in  the  domination  of  a  Protestant 
prince,  should  that  prince  defer  too  long  to  be  "  instructed." 
In  the  court  itself  the  religion  still  professed  by  the  king  was 
regarded  an  insuperable  bar  to  promotion.  One  day — it  must 
have  been  early  in  March1 — the  council  was  sitting  in  the  vil- 
lage of  Saint  Denis,  when  a  gentleman  was  introduced  who  came 
from  southern  France.  It  was  M.  de  Saint  Julien,  a  man  short 
The  secretary  *n  stature,  secretary  of  Lesdignieres,  and  commis- 
^ ^^res  sioned  by  his  master  to  bring  the  tidings  of  the  e.\- 
councii.  ploit  in  the  mountains  of  Dauphiny  mentioned  in  the 

last  chapter.  At  the  same  time  he  was  directed  to  request  the 
council  to  confer  upon  the  Huguenot  general  the  government 
of  Grenoble.  The  petition  was  not  an  unreasonable  one.  It 
was  not  every  day  in  the  week  that  a  servant  of  the  king  was 
able  to  report  the  capture  of  a  city  the  most  important  in  its 
province  and  the  seat  of  a  sovereign  court  of  the  realm, 
probably  thought  Henry  himself,  as  he  stood  in  another  part  of 
the  council  chamber  conversing  with  Soissons  and  Givrv,  but 


Grenoble  was  taken  by  Lesdiguu'res.  March  1,  1591,  De  Thou,  viii.  15. 


1591.  GROWTH   OF  THE  TIERS   PARTI.  243 

listening  to  what  was  said  around  the  board  more  attentively 
than  lie  pretended.  Not  so  thought  the  gentlemen  who  trans- 
acted his  affairs.  No  sooner  had  the  despatches  of  Lesdignieres 
been  read  and  Saint  Julien  been  permitted  to  explain  the  ob- 
ject of  his  mission,  than  Monsieur  d'O  started  to  his  feet,  furi- 
ous that  an  adherent  of  the  Reformed  religion  should  have  the 
audacity  to  ask  for  sO  important  a  trust.  Other  members  sup- 
ported his  violent  remarks,  and  it  devolved  upon  Marshal  Biron 
to  signify  to  the  secretary  the  impossibility  which  the  council 
found  in  acceding  to  the  wishes  of  Lesdignieres.  Truth  to  say, 
the  marshal  was  at  heart  inclined  to  give  a  different  answer  to 
a  gallant  soldier,  whose  daring  he  admired;  none  the  less  did 
he  discharge  his  official  duty  without  faltering.  In  a  somewhat 
prolix  address,  he  set  forth  to  Saint  Julien  the  great  obligations 
under  which  Lesdignieres  had  laid  his  majesty  and  the  whole 
realm,  as  well  as  the  desire  which  all  felt  to  recognize  his  ser- 
vices suitably.  It  was,  however,  quite  out  of  the  question  to 
place  a  city  which  was  the  seat  of  one  of  the  parliaments  of 
France  in  the  hands  of  a  Protestant. 

The  king  listened,  and  his  brow  lowered.  Saint  Julien  also 
listened  most  respectfully,  and,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  harangue, 
retired  with  a  very  humble  bow.  A  moment  or  two  afterward, 
however,  a  knock  was  heard  at  the  door,  and  once  more  the 
little  secretary  presented  himself  with  profuse  apologies  for 
again  intruding  upon  the  scene.  "  Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "  your 
unexpected  decision  made  me  quite  forget  a  single  point  more 
which  I  should  have  mentioned.  It  is,  may  it  please  you,  that 
since  your  great  caution  has  led  you  to  refuse  the  city  of  Grenoble 
to  my  master,  you  will  do  well  to  deliberate  also  as  to  the  means 
of  taking  it  away  from  him."  This  said,  he  withdrew  without 
further  ado.  "  The  little  man  tells  you  the  truth,"  exclaimed 
the  marshal  cheerily  ;  "  we  must  consider  the  point."  The 
light-hearted  king,  toward  whom  he  cast  a  furtive  glance,  an- 
swered with  a  laugh  full  of  enjoyment  of  the  incident.  Lesdi- 
guieres  received  the  appointment,  and  Saint  Julien  was  the 
bearer  of  the  official  announcement.1 

1  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  281,  282. 


244     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XIL 

Meanwhile,  despite  half-hearted  adherents  and  resolute  ene- 
mies, the  war  against  the  League  went  on,  though  not  with 
uniform  success.  It  is  true  that  an  attempt  made  by  the  Paris- 
ians to  surprise  Saint  Denis,  a  point  essential  both  to  their  com- 
fort and  to  their  security,  disastrously  failed,  and  their  leader, 
the  Chevalier  d'Aumale,  paid  the  penalty  of  his  rashness  with 
his  life.  But  it  was  only  a  few  days  after,  that  Henry  himself 
was  equally  unsuccessful  in  an  enterprise  having  for  its  object 
the  capture  of  Paris.  Unfortunately  the  massing  of  troops 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  city  had  not  been  so  secret  as  to  escape 
the  notice  of  the  enemy.  Apprehending  an  attack  from  the  west, 
they  had,  in  particular,  blocked  up  the  gate  of  Saint  Honore, 
which  then  spanned  the  street  of  the  same  name,  not  far  from 
the  present  site  of  the  Palais  Royal.  Now  it  was  by  this  gate 
the  royalists  had  intended  entering,  disguised  as  peasants,  with 
working  clothes  over  their  cuirasses.  As  the  provisions  that 
found  their  way  into  the  beleaguered  capital  generally  came  at 
night,  no  great  surprise  was  felt  when,  about  three 

"Le  jour  des       ,   ,       ■•  ,  .  rat  i  1  r 

farines,"  jan-  o  clock  on  the  morning  or  ounday,  the  twentieth  of 
January,  ten  or  a  dozen  men,  each  driving  before  him 
a  horse  or  donkey  laden  with  sacks  of  flour,  presented  them- 
selves at  the  gate.  It  was  not  suspected  that  the  pretended 
countrymen  were  experienced  officers,  nor  that  a  stronger  de- 
tachment of  soldiers  in  similar  costume  lurked  about  the  grounds 
of  the  Convent  of  the  Capuchins  (where  now  the  Treasury  Build- 
ings face  the  gardens  of  the  Tuileries),  ready  to  bring  up  wagons 
wherewith  to  prevent  the  closing  of  the  gate  when  once  it 
should  have  been  opened.  But  the  information  received  by 
the  forerunners,  that  they  must  either  go  down  to  the  water's 
edge  and  suffer  their  provisions  to  be  brought  in  by  boat,  or 
make  the  circuit  of  the  fortifications  to  the  Porte  Saint  Denis, 
disconcerted  the  well-laid  plan.  Henry  himself,  who,  with  a 
strong  body  of  men,  was  abiding  his  time,  hidden  from  view  on 
the  other  side  of  the  hill  of  Montmartre,  was  reluctantly  com- 
pelled to  interpret  the  noise  which  soon  after  arose  in  the  city 
as  a  proof  that  his  project  was  discovered,  and  gave  the  signal 
for  retreat.  If  his  disappointment  was  great,  the  delight  of  the 
Parisians  far  exceeded  it  in  intensity.     The  superstitious  popu- 


1591.  GROWTH   OF   THE  TIERS   PARTI.  245 

lace  had  felt  no  little  chagrin  at  the  previous  rebuff  experienced 
at  Saint  Denis.  The  time  had  been  carefully  chosen  by  the 
priests  to  insure  the  favor  of  Heaven — it  was  the  eve  of  Saint 
Genevieve's  day,  a  holy  season  when  it  might  reasonably  be 
expected  that  the  patron  of  the  city  would  see  to  it  that  the 
arms  of  her  devotees  should  prevail  over  those  of  the  heretics 
who  refused  her  intercession.1  As  a  result,  Saint  Genevieve 
fell  into  disrepute.  She  was  accused  of  having  treacherously 
passed  over  to  the  enemy's  camp.  low,  however,  the  Parisian 
League  was  jubilant.  Not  satisfied  with  having  lately  added  to 
their  calendar  three  days  of  annual  thanksgiving,  to  commemo- 
rate the  flight  of  Henry  the  Third,  the  raising  of  the  siege  by 
his  successor,  and  the  failure  of  the  escalade,  the  municipal  au- 
thorities proceeded  to  enjoin  the  observance  of  a  fourth  cele- 
bration— destined  to  as  short-lived  favor  as  all  the  rest — to  be 
held  on  the  twentieth  of  January  every  year,  and  known  as  the 
"  Day  of  the  Flour  " — "le  jour  des  farines." 2 

It  is  one  of  the  paradoxes  of  history  that  the  death  of  the 
very  pope  who  had  excommunicated  him,  and  who  absolved  his 

subjects  from  their  oaths  of  allegiance,  was  a  mis- 
ana  death  of    fortune  for  Henry  the  Fourth.    Sixtus  the  Fifth  died 

on  the  twenty-seventh  of  August,  1590,  just  at  the 
close  of  the  siege  of  Paris,  hated  by  Philip  the  Second  and  the 
Spaniards,  whose  ambitious  plans  he  understood  and  opposed, 
equally  detested  by  the  League,  against  whom  his  coffers  were 
resolutely  locked.  The  preachers  in  Paris  did  not  spare  him. 
They  denounced  him  from  the  pulpit  as  a  heretic.  Lestoile  tells 
us  that  he  himself  heard  the  curate  of  St.  Andre's  church  preach 
a  sermon  in  which  he  rejoiced  over  the  death  of  the  pontiff  as  a 
miracle  of  divine  goodness.  "  God,"  said  he,  has  delivered  us 
from  a  wicked  pope !  "  3     The  Spaniards   and  Italians  went 


1  The  festival  of  Saint  Genevieve,  as  observed  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
falls  upon  January  3d. 

2  For  the  attempts  upon  Saint  Denis  and  Paris,  see  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv. 
362,  and  364-371  (a  contemporary  letter  by  a  partisan  of  the  League),  Recueil 
des  choses  memorables,  734,  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  247,  Lestoile,  ii.  42,  De 
Thou,  vii.  770,  etc.  Lestoile  records  later  the  celebration  of  the  first  anniver- 
sary of  the  "  fete  des  farines,"  ii.  81.  3  Lestoile,  ii.  34. 


246      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cu.  XIL 

farther,  and  gave  out  that  his  holiness  had  been  carried  off  by 
the  devil,  in  pursuance  of  a  bargain  made  long  before  between 
Sixtus  and  the  prince  of  evil.  Some  said,  indeed,  that  he  had 
bought  his  elevation  to  the  pontifical  chair  at  the  price  of  his 
soul.1  So  it  was  that  the  same  pope  who  had  expressed  grave 
fears  lest  the  soul  of  his  predecessor  might  be  enduring  the  suf- 
ferings of  another  wrorld,  in  atonement  for  the  bloodshed  oc- 
casioned by  the  favor  he  had  shown  the  League,''  was  himself 
supposed  to  have  passed  to  a  place  of  torment.  It  was  even 
asserted  that  Sixtus  had  been  promised  by  Satan  the  possession 
of  Peter's  chair  for  a  period  of  six  years.  When,  after  the 
expiration  of  five  only,  the  infernal  messenger  was  sent  to 
summon  him,  he  complained  loudly  of  the  breach  of  faith.  But 
the  envoy  soon  silenced  his  remonstrance  by  reminding  him  of 
an  incident  that  had  occurred  early  in  his  pontificate.  The 
friends  of  a  youth  sentenced  to  death  for  some  slight  offence — 
some  said  it  was  for  mere  resistance  to  the  pope's  soldiers,  who 
were  taking  away  his  ass — pleaded  in  his  behalf  that  he  lacked 
yet  a  year  of  the  lowest  age  at  which  the  laws  permitted  a  man 
to  be  executed.  The  angry  pope,  resolved  to  put  him  out  of  the 
way,  thereupon  exclaimed  :  "  Very  well,  then,  I  give  him  one  of 
my  years,"  and  ordered  the  sentence  to  be  carried  into  effect. 
That  year,  the  Satanic  messenger  intimated  to  the  dying  Sixtus, 
was  the  missing  sixth  year  of  his  pontificate." 

Sixtus  was  succeeded  by  Urban  the  Seventh,  a  creature  of 
the  King  of  Spain,  but  Urban  died  after  enjoying  his  elevation 
less  than  a  fortnight.  Next  Cardinal  Sfondrato  was  chosen,  and 
took  the  name  of  Gregory  the  Fourteenth.     It  would  have  beeo 

strange  had  the  new  pope  not  been  well  pleasing  to 
xiv.  supports  Philip  the  Second  ;  for  his  Catholic  Majesty  had  made 

up  beforehand  a  list  of  seven  cardinals,  and  demanded 
that  the  conclave  should  elect  one  of  them  to  the  papal  see.4  Ac- 
cordingly Gregory,  upon  whom  the  choice  fell,  was  as  decided 


1  Ranke,  History  of  the  Popes,  225.  9  Above,  vol.  i.  305. 

3  The  strange  story  seems  to  have  enjoyed  wide  currency  among  the  super- 
stitious. See  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  230,  De  Thou,  vii.  724.  725,  and  Ranke, 
142.  *  Ranke,  ubi  supra,  22(3. 


1591.  GROWTH  OF   THE  TIERS  PARTI.  247 

in  support  of  the  League  as  Sixtus  had  been  determined  in  con- 
demnation of  it,  and  detested  Henry  the  Fourth  as  much  as 
Sixtus  admired  him.  And  now  the  treasure  which  had  been  so 
carefully  hoarded  was  quickly  expended.  Surprise  has  fre- 
quently been  expressed  that  Sixtus  was  able  in  five  years  to  ac- 
cumulate the  sum  of  four  and  a  half  million  scudi  or  dollars ; ]  but 
none,  so  far  as  I  know,  at  Gregory's  success  in  making  away  with 
the  whole  in  a  pontificate  of  ten  months  and  ten  days.  The  late 
pope,  who  from  his  earliest  days  had  experienced  the  keenest 
gratification  in  the  practice  of  economy  and  saving,  did,  indeed, 
undertake  to  bind  his  successors  in  office  to  reserve  the  fund 
which  he  left  laid  up  in  the  castle  of  San  Angelo  sacredly  for  cer- 
tain purposes,  under  pain  of  the  wrath  of  Almighty  God  and  of 
the  holy  apostles  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  It  was  to  be  used 
only  in  the  event  of  war  for  the  reconquest  of  the  Holy  Land  or 
of  a  general  war  against  the  Turks,  to  relieve  famine  or  pesti- 
lence, to  avert  manifest  danger  of  the  loss  of  a  province  of  Cath- 
olic Christendom,  to  repel  invasion  of  the  States  of  the  Church, 
or  to  recover  a  city  belonging  to  the  papal  see.2  But  Gregory 
was  scarcely  seated  upon  the  throne,  which  he  ascended  on  the 
fifth  of  December,  1590,  before  he  began  to  lay  out  the  money 
for  purposes  quite  repugnant  to  the  designs  of  Sixtus.  One  of 
his  first  acts  was  to  write  a  brief  to  the  Parisians  praising  them 
for  their  past  conduct  and  exhorting  them  to  persevere  to  the 
end.  He  enforced  his  words  by  the  promise  of  a  monthly  sub- 
sidy of  fifteen  thousand  crowns,  and  by  sending  Marcellino  Lan- 

driano  as  papal  nuncio  to  France,  to  second  the  efforts 
sent  as  papal  of  li is  legate,  the  Bishop  of  Piacenza,  who  had,  some 

time  since,  taken  the  place  of  Sixtus's  disobedient 
envoy,  Cardinal  Cajetan.  Meantime  a  force  consisting  of  six 
thousand  Swiss,  two  thousand  foot  soldiers,  and  fifteen  hundred 
horsemen,  was  to  proceed  as  speedily  as  possible  to  the  relief 
of  the  League,  under  command  of  the  pope's  nephew,  Ercole 
Sfondrato,  newly  created  Duke  of  Montemarciano.  The  out- 
rages which  the  pope's  auxiliary  army  perpetrated  in  the  friendly 

1  See  Ranke  s  discussion  of  the  financial  system  of  Sixtus  V.,  in  his  History 
of  the  Popes,  146-148.  2  Ibid.,  146. 


248      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn.  XII. 

Milanese,  before  leaving  Italy,  were  a  presage  of  the  damage 
that  might  be  expected  at  its  hands  when  once  France  should 
have  been  reached.1  Nor  was  this  all.  In  a  solemn  bull,  under 
date  of  the  first  of  March,  Gregory  warned  the  clergy  of  France 
that  he  suspended  and  excommunicated  them,  unless  within 
fifteen  days  they  should  renounce  the  obedience  of 
sued  against    Henry  of  Bourbon.     In  case  a  further  period  of  fif - 

Henry  IV.  J  .  r  ,  . 

#teen  days  should  elapse,  they  were  to  be-  deprived  or 
all  their  possessions  and  dignities.  Under  the  same  date,  he  ad- 
dressed a  second  bull  to  the  nobles,  judges,  and  tiers  etat,  where- 
in he  called  upon  them  to  abandon  the  king,  under  pain  of  trans- 
forming Gregory's  pontifical  goodness  and  paternal  piety  into 
judicial  severity.  Moreover,  he  declared  the  said  Henry  of 
Bourbon  to  be  excommunicated  and  to  have  forfeited  all  his 
kingdoms  and  seigniories,  as  a  relapsed  heretic.3 

The  papal  bulls  were  promptly  answered  by  a  spirited  decree 

of  the  Parliament  of  Chalons,  and  the  insulting  language  of 

Gregory  was  hurled  back  in  defiance.     The  judges 

nientofctia-    ordered  the  bulls  to  be  publicly  burned  by  the  lianu:- 

lons  orders 

them  to  be      man  on  the  principal  square  of  the  city.   They  declared 

burned.  .  ,       ,r  r  .         .  ,  ni 

the  pope  s  documents  or  excommunication  to  be  null 
and  void,  "  as  abusive,  scandalous,  seditious,  full  of  imposture, 
and  drawn  up  contrary  to  the  holy  decrees,  canonic  constitu- 
tions, approved  councils,  and  the  rights  and  liberties 

And  the  nun-        _      .,  J,    ._,  ~.  .      ,       „,.  ..  1       , 

ciotobear-     or  the  Gallican  Church."     Ihey  ordered  the   arrest 

rested 

of  Landriano,  "pretended  nuncio,  who  had  clandes- 
tinely entered  the  kingdom  without  leave  of  the  king,''  and 
offered  a  reward  of  ten  thousand  livres   to   the  person  who 


1  Letter  of  Gregory  XIV.  to  the  Council  of  the  "  Seize,"  Rome,  May  12, 
1591,  in  Cayet,  Chronologie  novenaire  (Ed.  Michaud  et  Poujoulat),  278,  279  : 
De  Thou,  vii.  774-777  ;  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  371 ;  Recueil  des  choses  me- 
morables,  733,  734  ;  Ranke,  ubi  supra,  226. 

2  Summary  in  the  contemporaneous  "  Response  aux  commonitoires  et  ex- 
communications de  Gregoire  XIV.  jettees  contre  tres-illustre,  tres-victorieux, 
et  tres-auguste  Prince  Henri  de  Bourbon,  Roy  tres-Chrestien  de  France  et  de 
Navarre,''  reprinted  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  410-654,  a  long  and  exhaust- 
ive treatise,  in  which  the  rights  of  kings  and  of  the  Gallican  Church  are 
vindicated  with  marked  ability  and  no  little  display  of  erudition. 


1591.  GROWTH   OF   THE  TIERS  PARTI.  249 

should  capture  him  and  deliver  him  to  the  authorities  for  trial. 
They  pronounced  sentence  of  forfeiture  of  all  benefices  held  by 
them  in  France  upon  the  Roman  cardinals  and  ecclesiastics 
who  had  counselled  and  signed  the  bulls,  and  who  had  approved 
"  the  very  inhuman,  very  abominable,  and  very  detestable  par- 
ricide committed  on  the  person  of  the  late  Very  Catholic  king." 
They  strictly  prohibited  all  sending  of  money  to  Rome  for  bulls, 
dispensations,  or  other  such  ends.1 

The  bulls  of  Gregory  the  Fourteenth  were  fraught  with  more 
important  consequences  than  might  perhaps  have  been  antici- 
pated. We  have  it  upon  the  authority  of  Cayet2  that  it  was 
these  documents  that  first  introduced  division  into  the  royalist 
Thebuiisin-  P^tyj  hitherto  a  unit,  and  led  to  the  institution  of  a 
£on"netheivi~  political  faction  which  arrogated  to  itself  the  title  of 
royalist  party.  tiie  « tierg  parti."  This  was  a  very  different  body,  and 
with  quite  diverse  principles  and  aims,  from  that  which,  in  the 
reigns  of  Charles  the  Ninth  and  Henry  the  Third,  had  been 
known  sometimes  by  this  name  and  sometimes  as  the  party  of 
the  "  politiques  "  or  malcontents.  The  designation  now  covered 
a  considerable  fraction  of  the  Roman  Catholic  adherents  of 
Henry  of  Bourbon  whom  the  monitory  bulls  and  the  renewed 
excommunication  of  the  pope  suddenly  awakened  to  a  sense  of 
their  peril,  as  the  followers  of  a  prince  solemnly  deposed  by 
the  highest  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  as  themselves  incurring, 
by  their  failure  to  renounce  his  allegiance,  the  gravest  censures 
of  their  church.  Such  men  had  before  this  felt  no  little  reluc- 
tance to  serve  an  "heretical"  king,  while  biding  the  time  when 
he  should  see  fit  to  submit  to  the  long-deferred  "  instruction." 
They  now  began  to  clamor  for  the  speedy  fulfilment  of  his 
promise,  for  his  prompt  abjuration,  as  an  indispensable  condi- 

1  The  decree  of  the  Parliament  of  Chalons,  of  June  10,  1591,  is  reproduced  in 
Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  395-396. 

2  Chronologie  novenaire  (Ed.  Michaud  et  Poujoulat),  295  :  uBref,  il  y  avoit 
en  ce  party  bien  du  desordre  et  de  la  confusion,  au  contraire  du  party  du  Roy 
qui  estoit  sans  aucune  division :  ce  qui  fut  entretenu  jusques  au  temps  de  la 
publication  des  bulles  monitoires  du  pape  Gregoire  XIV.  que  d'aacuns  voulu- 
rent  engendrer  un  tiers-party,  et  le  former  des  catholiques  qui  estoient  dans  le 
party  royal." 


250  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.       Cn.  XIL 

tion  of  continued  support.  An  aspiring  prelate  saw  in  the  un- 
certain state  of  the  affairs  of  France  a  possible  chance  for  as- 
serting a  claim  of  his  own  to  the  throne.  Charles  of  Bourbon, 
Ambition  of  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  was  one  of  the  three  surviving 
chariest  sons  of  Louis,  Prince  of  Conde,  who  fell  at  Jarnac, 
Bourbon.  twenty -two  years  before  the  time  of  which  I  am  now 
wTriting.  lie  was  the  same  prelate  that  had  addressed  his  cousin, 
Henry  of  JSavarre,  in  1583,  an  ill-considered  demand  that  he 
should  become  a  Roman  Catholic,  as  a  means  of  acquiring  the 
support  of  the  nobles,  and  had  in  reply  received  some  useful 
information  as  to  what  the  nature  of  sincere  religion  is.1  The 
eight  intervening  years,  however,  do  not  seem  to  have  had  any 
effect  in  impressing  upon  his  mind  the  lesson  then  inculcated, 
that  religion  is  not  an  article  of  which  a  man  can  divest  him- 
self with  as  much  ease  as  he  changes  one  shirt  for  another. 
At  any  rate,  he  had  resolved  to  obtain  what  advantage  he  could 
from  Henry's  reluctance  to  abjure  Protestantism  under  mani- 
fest compulsion.  It  is  true  that  the  claim  which  he  could  ad- 
vance to  be  regarded  as  the  first  prince  of  the  blood  was  a  very 
shadowy  one.  The  young  Cardinal  of  Bourbon — he  had  been 
known  as  Cardinal  of  Vendome  until  lately  but  had  assumed 
the  former  designation  upon  the  death  of  his  uncle,  the  phan- 
tom king  of  the  League — had  an  older  brother,  the  Priii 
Conty,  not  to  speak  of  his  young  nephew,  the  son  of  the  late 
Prince  Henry  of  Conde.  But  Charles  affected  to  despise  the 
latter  as  of  more  than  doubtful  birth,  while  he  esteemed  his 
brother's  physical  defects  as  sufficient  to  exclude  him  from  the 
succession.  As  the  cardinal,  though  a  member  of  the  papal 
consistory,  had  never  been  ordained,  no  dispensation  would  be 
necessary  to  enable  him  to  enter  upon  the  duties  of  a  secular 
monarch.  The  pope,  indeed,  whom  he  sounded  upon  the  point, 
was  careful  to  give  him  no  encouragement  in  his  ambitious 
signs;2  but  popes  were  short-lived,  and  Gregory's  successor 
might  prove  more  gracious. 

The  new  party  deemed  the  moment  propitious  for  a  demon- 


1  See  above,  vol.  i.,  page  271. 

2  De  Thou,  vii.  ^book  101),  778-781. 


1591.  GROWTH  OF  THE  TIERS  PARTI.  251 

stration,  and  resolved,  under  cover  of  a  call  upon  Henry  to 
gratify  his  Roman  Catholic  subjects  by  embracing  their  relig- 
Thetiers  parti  i°us  fo^li,  to  address  an  appeal  to  the  people.  The 
HMttyPtoab-  PaPer  that  was  drawn  up  came  to  be  known,  from  the 
iure-  place  of  its  surreptitious  printing,  as  "the  Remon- 

strance of  Angers."  The  circumstance  that  nowhere  else  are 
the  motives  more  clearly  set  forth  by  which  Henry  was  plied 
to  abjure  Protestantism  will  justify  a  somewhat  minute  exam- 
ination of  its  contents. 

"The  Supplication  and  Advice  to  the  King  to  make  himself 
a  Catholic,"  contained  the  four  cardinal  propositions,  that  this 

course  would  be  holy,  that  it  would  be  honorable, 
stranceof       that  it  would  be  advantageous,  and  that  it  wasa  bso- 

lutely  necessary.  Let  it  not  be  supposed,  however, 
that  under  the  first  head  there  was  any  calm  discussion  of  the 
religious,  or  even  the  purely  moral,  aspects  of  the  case.  For  such 
a  discussion  we  shall  look  in  vain  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
of  the  document.  Nowhere  was  a  single  high  motive  appealed 
to.  The  king  was  informed  that  the  title  of  "Catholic"  had, 
from  almost  the  very  beginning,  been  a  badge  as  distinct  as  the 
designation  "Christian,"  and  that  there  was,  and  could  be,  but 
one  church,  which  continued  to  subsist  while  every  form  of 
heresy  had  successively  disappeared  before  it.  The  private  in- 
dividuals who  had  undertaken  to  reform  the  church,  had  done 
so  without  any  warrant.  That  right  belonged  to  the  king. 
"  Come  into  our  church  and  cleanse  it  so  thoroughly  and  care- 
fully that  all  pretext  for  a  division  shall  be  taken  away.  You 
are  the  eldest  son  of  the  church  and  entitled  to  command  ;  but 
you  will  be  obeyed  only  when  you  issue  your  mandates  from 
within.  Rather  be  instructed  by  the  multitude  of  learned  men 
in  the  church  than  by  a  few  reformers.  Let  not  the  conduct 
of  one  pope  or  more  be  a  stumbling-block  ;  go  back  to  the  time 
when  the  Roman  pontiffs  were  also  martyrs.  The  reformers 
themselves  do  not  claim  to  be  perfect ;  if  that  is  so,  they  will 
need  to  be  reformed  by  others,  and  these  last  by  still  others. 
In  ten  years  there  will  be  as  many  schisms  and  quarrels.  Noth- 
ing is  permanent  and  enduring.  After  all,  it  is  ceremonial,  not 
doctrine,  that  is  chiefly  in  dispute.     Do  not  imperil  your  soul's 


^ 


252      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XII. 

salvation  for  such  trifles.  You  were  baptized  in  the  Catholic 
Church  ;  you  ought  to  live  and  die  in  it." 

The  writer  had  no  difficulty  in  proving,  to  his  own  satisfac- 
tion, that  Henry  would  consult  his  honor  by  abjuring  Protes- 
tantism. All  his  predecessors  were  Catholics.  Saint  LouU  was 
canonized,  not  in  Geneva,  but  in  Home.  "  Sire,"  said  the  writer, 
"the  first  rank  which  you  hold  among  kings  you  have  received 
for  the  service  of  the  Christian  religion.  Who  will  preserve  it 
for  you — the  Church  of  Geneva  or  the  Catholic  Church  \  In 
the  councils  of  the  so-called  Reformed,  the  kings  of  England, 
Scotland,  and  Denmark  will  have  the  precedence  over  yon,  Bince 
you  came  in  later  than  they  did  ;  while  in  the  assemblies  of  the 
Catholic  Church  you  will  have  no  standing,  because  you  have 
separated  yourself  from  it.  Your  nobles  will  follow  you  into 
battle,  for  they  recognize  you  as  their  natural  head  and  their 
lord  by  the  grace  of  God  ;  but  will  it  conduce  to  your  dignity 
to  have  them  forsake  you  at  the  door  of  your  "  temple " 
(Protestant  church)  ?  Will  it  be  of  advantage  to  your  authority 
to  have  all  the  princes  of  the  blood  and  all  the  officers  of  state 
gathered  in  one  spot,  while  you  are  with  a  few  private  persons 
in  another  place  ?  Is  it  becoming  that  any  one  of  your  subjects 
should  have  a  greater  following  anywhere  than  you  have  I  And 
when  it  comes  to  your  coronation  (for  I  have  no  expectation 
that  you  will  despise  a  solemnity  so  ancient  and  venerable),  with 
what  honor,  with  wdiat  majesty,  with  what  pomp  and  ceremonies 
will  you  celebrate  it,  if  you  are  to  be  anointed  in  a  church 
whose  foundation-stone  is  yet  to  be  laid — if  popes,  cardinals, 
archbishops,  and  bishops  take  no  part  therein  ?  Will  you  take 
at  the  hands  of  the  Reformed  clergy  the  oath  to  maintain  the 
Roman  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church  in  all  its  rights  8  And 
when  it  comes  to  dying  (for  the  great  must  think  of  this  as  well 
as  the  small),  will  it  seem  good  to  you  that  you  cannot  be  buried 
in  the  old  royal  crypts  at  Saint  Denis,  where  the  church  can 
never  receive  you  ? " 

The  profitableness  of  the  change  of  religion  was  made  equally 
manifest.  Henry  would  gain  over  all  his  Roman  Catholic  sub- 
jects. Even  the  adherents  of  the  League  would  gradually  sub- 
mit.    The  cities,  tired  of  war  and  ready  to  catch  at  any  pretext, 


1591.  GROWTH   OF   THE  TIERS  PARTI.  253 

would  open  their  gates.  The  church  would  help  by  subventions 
of  money.  The  king  would  increase  his  alliances  with  Roman 
Catholic  princes  abroad  and  lose  none  of  his  Protestant  allies. 
His  Huguenot  subjects  would  in  part  follow  his  example  ; 
those  who  did  not  would  at  least  prefer  him  to  their  former 
persecutors.  Let  his  majesty  not  fear  lest  he  should  be  ex- 
changing a  certainty  for  an  uncertainty — the  Roman  Catholics 
would  stand  by  him,  while  as  for  the  Huguenots,  if  they  were 
obedient  to  the  late  king,  they  would  with  much  greater  reason 
obey  the  present  monarch.1 

When  the  absolute  necessity  of  the  abjuration  came  up,  the 
writer  almost  waxed  eloquent.  Were  the  king  to  refuse  to  be 
converted,  he  would  drag  his  Roman  Catholic  followers  with 
him  to  destruction.  France,  said  he,  is  already  a  prey  to  neigh- 
boring princes,  each  one  of  whom  wishes  to  appropriate  a  por- 
tion for  himself.  His  majesty  lacks  men,  money,  arms,  pro- 
visions. The  country,  now  resembling  a  den  of  robbers  and 
murderers,  rather  than  a  kingdom,  must  have  peace,  and  it  can 
have  it  only  if  Henry  becomes  a  Roman  Catholic.  All  the 
three  orders  of  the  state  are  of  the  Catholic  religion  ;  there  are 
not  enough  Protestants  in  France,  all  told,  to  make  a  fourth 
division.  To  please  his  subjects  the  king  must  be  of  their 
religion.  If  the  affections  of  the  Greeks  for  Alexander  the 
Great  were  chilled  by  his  merely  adopting  the  Persian  dress, 
much  more  will  the  French  be  alienated  by  a  gulf  existing  be- 
tween their  monarch  and  them  that  reaches  down  to  the  depths 
of  the  heart.  For  Frenchmen  can  tolerate  a  Turk  better  than 
they  can  a  heretic.  Even  the  nobles  may  tire  of  the  endless 
struggle,  and  waver  in  their  devotion  ;  but,  if  they  should  not, 
what  can  they  do  against  the  united  clergy  and  people?  Julius 
•Caesar,  with  the  help  of  the  people  alone,  triumphed  over  Pom- 
pey,  though  the  latter  had  the  senate  and  the  equestrian  order 
at  his  back.  It  is  true  that  Henry  has  done  nothing  to  the  dis- 
advantage of  Roman  Catholicism  as  yet,  but  the  popular  anxi- 


1  "Et  quant  aux  huguenots,  s'ils  ont  obei  au  defunt  roi,  ils  vous  obeiront  a 
plus  forte  raison."  It  is  instructive  to  notice  another  of  these  numerous, 
almost  unconscious,  tributes  to  the  unwavering  loyalty  of  the  Huguenots. 


254     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn.  XII. 

ety  pictures  the  evil  he  may  do,  when  once  his  power  shall  be 
unrestricted.  That  anxiety  can  be  allayed  by  a  single  word 
from  the  king.  Let  that  word  come  as  an  inspiration  of  God, 
rather  than  a  suggestion  of  man.  Let  it  be  prompted  by  grat- 
itude to  Heaven,  which  has  brought  the  king  to  Saint  Denis, 
where  lies  buried  the  good  bishop  who  first  brought  Christian- 
ity to  France,  where  are  his  relics,  where  is  his  church  !  It  is 
a  fitting  place  for  exchanging  the  "  white  scarf"  for  the  "white 
cross."  The  people's  voice  is  God's  voice.  If  Henry  were 
simple  Duke  of  Vendome,  he  might  suit  himself  in  the  matter. 
As  King  of  France  he  must  consult  the  interests  of  his  realm. 
Let  Henry  be  prevailed  upon.  He  is  not  implored  to  become 
an  idolater,  a  superstitious  devotee,  a  hypocrite,  nor  to  turn 
Jew,  Turk,  or  heathen ;  but,  in  the  divided  condition  of  Chris- 
tendom, to  attach  himself  to  the  more  numerous  party  without 
becoming  an  enemy  of  other  parts.  Thus  only  can  he  recon- 
cile divisions,  secure  his  own  position,  and  strike  the  death-blow 
at  the  designs  of  the  Spaniard. 

Such  were  the  lofty  motives  wherewith  Henry  of   Nai 
was  to  be  determined,  such  the  most  disinterested  grounds  that 
could  justify  his  abandonment  of  the  religion  which. 

An  appeal  to  .   .  .  ..  .     .  D  .... 

low  consider-   to  use  his  own  expression,  lie  had  imbibed   with  Ins 

mother's  milk  !  Not  a  word  as  to  deep-seated 
victions  of  duty,  no  attempt  to  refute  the  close  logic  by  means 
of  which  reformers  had  fortified  their  positions,  no  pretence  <«f 
demonstrating  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  of  transnbstantiation, 
the  efficacy  of  the  mass  as  a  sacrifice  for  the  living  and  the  dead. 
the  existence  of  purgatory,  the  utility  of  good  works,  as  the 
means  of  supplementing  the  work  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  justi- 
fication of  the  believer,  the  authority  of  tradition  as  equal  with 
the  authority  of  revelation,  the  lawfulness  of  worshipping  saints 
and  angels,  the  mediation  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  claim  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  to  a  universal  episcopate  and  to  the  dignity 
and  attributes  of  a  vicar  of  God  on  the  earth.  All  these  and 
similar  matters  were  jauntily  set  aside  with  the  general  observa- 
tion that,  after  all,  it  was  not  the  doctrinal  tenets  of  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  Church  to  which  the  Protestant  ministers  were 
so  obstinately  opposed,  but  merely  ceremonies  and  traditions. 


1591,  GROWTH   OF  THE  TIERS  PARTI.  Z'oo 

and  these  might  be  changed  !  No  wonder,  then,  that  in  the 
mind  of  one  who  took  so  conveniently  superficial  a  survey,  the 
whole  matter  virtually  resolved  itself  into  this  proposition — 
that  the  king's  position  could  never  be  anything  else  than  one 
of  extreme  discomfort  so  long  as  he  deferred  the  politic  step  of 
professing  the  Roman  Catholic  religion. 

That  these  were  practically  the  views  of  the  Roman  Catholics 

of  Henry's  party,  that  the  considerations  set  forth  in  the  paper 

were  essentiallv  those  that  influenced  Henry  himself  to  take  the 

important  step  at  Saint  Denis,  two  years  later,  there  seems  not 

to   be  room  to  doubt.     It  was  quite  another  thing, 

TheRemon-  •  t        i  i 

etrance  sup-    however,  tor  an  anonymous  writer  to  divulge  the  state 

pressed. 

of  the  matter  to  the  world.  And  so  the  authorities, 
at  once  upon  its  appearance,  took  strenuous  measures  to  pre- 
vent the  accomplishment  of  those  ulterior  ends  at  which  this 
untimely  publication  apparently  aimed.  Any  further  printing 
or  sale  of  it  was  forbidden  on  pain  of  death.  As  to  the  two 
hundred  copies  which  had  already  issued  from  the  press,  so 
thorough  and  so  successful  was  the  search  instituted  for  them, 
so  remorseless  the  destruction,  that  not  a  single  one,  so  far  as  is 
known,  has  come  down  to  our  times.1  Nor  was  this  all.  Lest 
any  copies  of  the  pestilent  treatise  should  have  escaped,  and  in 
order  to  counteract  the  pernicious  influence  which  such  senti- 
ments as  were  there  expressed  might  exercise,  the  production  of 
the  "  tiers  parti "  was  subjected  to  candid  but  merciless  criticism 
in  several  contemporary  pamphlets.  One  of  the  ablest  of  these 
answers,  preserved  by  the  discriminating  care  of  the  editor  of 
that  invaluable  collection,  the  "  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,"  well  de- 

1  See  DeThou,  vii.  (book  101)  778,  781,  and  Cayet,  Chronologienovenaire 
(Ed.  Michaud  et  Poujoulat),  295.  Happily,  although,  according  to  Cayet,  but 
f  two  hundred  copies  were  printed,  and  these  seem  all  to  have  been  destroyed, 
two  manuscript  copies  have  been  preserved  at  Paris,  the  one  in  the  Library  of 
the  Arsenal,  vol.  176,  with  which  Ranke  was  acquainted  (see  the  summary  in 
'?  Civil  Wars  and  Monarchy  in  France,"  Amer.  edit.,  pp.  473,  474),  and  the 
other  in  the  National  Library,  Dupuy  Coll.,  337.  Stahelin  has  inserted  a 
translation  of  this  in  his  Uebertritt  Konig  Heinrichs  IV. .  301-309,  which  I  have 
used  in  the  text.  See  also  pages  298-300,  and  319  of  the  work  last  mentioned. 
From  the  answer  to  which  reference  is  made  below,  it  appears  that  the  author 
of  the  "  Advis  "  took  the  '"  nom  de  plume  "  of  Juste,  or  Justus. 


256  THE  HUGUENOTS   AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.         Ch.  XIL 

serves  to  be  read  as  an  illustration  of  the  usual  superiority  of 
the  Protestant  controversial  papers  of  the  sixteenth  century 
over  the  corresponding  works  of  their  opponents.1 

Meantime  the  king,  while  keeping  his  eyes  and  ears  open  to 
the  suspicious  deportment  of  Cardinal  Bourbon  and  the  new 
"  tiers  parti,"  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  employ  against  so 
The  king's  weak  a  personage  as  the  prelate  any  more  severe 
Sfnars*  weapon  than  his  keen  mother- wit.  When  Bourbon, 
pretensions,  overcome  with  shame  that  the  secret  of  his  intrigues 
at  Rome  and  their  disastrous  failure  had  gotten  abroad,  fell  sick, 
Henry,  who  had  in  his  hands  the  proofs  of  the  cardinal's  treach- 
ery in  writing,  did  not  hesitate  to  visit  him  and  administer  such 
comfort  as  his  bantering  words  were  calculated  to  impart. 
"  Take  courage,  cousin,"  said  he,  with  a  cheery  laugh  ;  "  it  is  true 
that  you  are  not  yet  king,  but  it  is  possible  that  you  will  be, 
after  me."  2 

The  Declaration  of  Saint  Cloud,  made  on  the  fourth  of 
August,  1589,  immediately  after  the  accession  of  Henry  the 
Fourth,  contained,  it  will  be  remembered,  a  petition  on  the  part 
of  his  Roman  Catholic  nobles  that  his  majesty  would  allow  them 
to  send  to  Rome  an  envoy,  who  might  explain  to  the  pope  the 
motives  that  had  actuated  them  in  their  recognition  of  the  new 
king,  and  might  obtain  the  pontiff's  advice  in  return.3  We  have 
seen  how  courteously  Sixtus  granted  an  audience  to  Monsieur  de 
Luxembourg,  Duke  of  Piney,  whom  the  nobles  sent  in  accord- 
ance with  the  king's  permission.4  But  Luxembourg  was  able  to 
effect  little  or  nothing,  and  returned  to  France.5     Even  then. 


1  It  bears  the  title  "  Response  a.  l'instance  et  proposition  que  plusieurs  font, 
que  pour  avoir  une  paixgenerale  et  bien  establie  en  France,  il  faut  que  le  Roy 
change  de  Religion  et  se  renge  a  celle  de  l'Eglise  Romaine."  Memoires  de  la 
Ligue,  iv.  700-732. 

2  "Mon  cousin,  prenez  bon  courage  ;  il  est  vrai  que  vous  nVtes  pas  encore 
roi  ;  mais  le  serez  possible  apres  moi."    Biographie  universelle  (Paris,  18T-3  .  ? 
348,  349,  article  Bourbon,  Charles  de. 

3  See  above,  chapter  xi.,  p.  175. 

4  Above,  chapter  xi.,  p.  210. 

5  "  Olivarez  [the  Spanish  ambassador  at  Rome]  obliged  the  pope  to  sen  1 
away  Luxembourg,  though  it  were  only  under  the  pretext  of  a  pilgrimage  to 
Loretto."  Ranke,  History  of  the  Popes,  224.     Yet,  according  to  the  Instruc 


1591.  GROWTH  OF  THE  TIERS  PARTI.  257 

however,  he  had  not  given  up  all  hope,  but  had  written,  immedi- 
ately after  reaching  home,  a  very  full  paper  to  the  college  of 
cardinals.  Hearing  that  the  opposition  of  some  enemies  of  his 
mission  had  prevented  this  communication  from  being  laid  be- 
fore the  conclave,  he  even  wrote  a  farther  letter  to  the  prelate 
who  might  be  chosen  pope.  The  person  whom  he  had  intrusted 
with  the  duty  of  delivering  this  missive  reported  that  Gregory 
the  Fourteenth  not  only  received  it  kindly,  but  gave  him  to  un- 
derstand that  he  would  answer  it  and  make  such  provision  as  he 
might  deem  most  advisable.1  These  assurances  the  pope  ful- 
filled by  sending  his  nuncio  to  the  Parisians  with  exhortations 
to  persevere  in  their  rebellion,  with  pledges  of  monthly  remit- 
tances of  money,  and  promises  of  the  speedy  advent  of  a  large 
The  pope  in-  auxiliary  force ;  and,  not  least  of  all,  with  the  two 
jJJJJJSii?  bulls  WQ*cn  not  only  declared  the  French  king  to  be 
rebellion.  an  excommunicated  heretic,  but  threatened  with  ec- 
clesiastical censures  and  all  the  severity  of  an  offended  judge 
the  entire  body  of  Henry's  adherents,  of  whatsoever  rank  or 
profession,  churchmen  and  laymen,  nobles  or  roturiers! 

Who  could  have  believed  that  those  thus  menaced  and  con- 
demned would,  notwithstanding,  renew  the  proposals  so  con- 
temptuously rejected,  or  that  the  king  who  had  been  repelled  and 
abused  would  himself  deign  to  take  part  in  the  negotiations  ? 2 

Yet  this  is  what  actually  came  to  pass.  In  the  first  place, 
Luxembourg,  swallowing  his  pride  as  best  he  might,  addressed 
the  new  pope  a  letter  from  the  royal  camp  before  Chartres,  on 


tions  given  by  the  French  nobles  to  Luxembourg,  July  7,  1591,  when  next  re- 
quested to  go  to  Italy,  he  accomplished  at  least  one  thing:  "  Tant  s'en  faut 
qu'elle  [Sixtus  V.]  condamnast  les  susdits  princes  .  .  .  qui  avoient  reconnu  et 
suivoient  le  roy,  que  par  un  sien  brief  sur  ce  a  eux  despesche,  elleleur  donnoit 
sa  benediction,  louant  ce  qu'ils  avoient  fait  entendre  de  leurs  bonnes  inten- 
tions en  ce  qu'ils  avoient  fait  a  l'entretenement  de  la  religion  Catholique, 
Apostolique  et  Romaine."     Memoires  de  Nevers,  ii.  515. 

1  "Copie  des  lettres  missives  envoyees  de  la  part  du  Seigneur  Due  de  Lux- 
embourg au  Pape,"  dated  "au  Camp  devant  Chartres,1' April  8,  1591,  in 
Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv   374-378,  and  Memoires  de  Nevers,  ii.  529-532. 

2  This  pertinent  question  I  take  from  E.  Stahelin,  Uebertritt  Konig  Hein- 
richs  IV.,  2fi7,  who  justly  remarks  that  Henry's  conduct  on  this  occasion  is 
significant  of  his  inner  views  and  plan. 

Vol.  II.— 17 


258      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cn.  XU 

the  eighth  of  April,  to  accompany  a  more  formal  congratulatory 
address  sent  in  the  name  of  such  of  the  nobles  as  were  there 
present,  felicitating  him  upon  his  assumption  of  the  tiara. 
m.  de  lux-  Conveniently  feigning  incredulity  as  to  the  report  that 
Stterllfthe  Gregory  had  promised  aid  to  the  rebellious  Parisians, 
pope'  and  expressing  the  hope  that  the  nuncio  now  sent 

might  act  a  better  part  than  the  envoys  who  had  preceded  him, 
Luxembourg  reminded  the  pontiff  of  the  notable  change  which 
had  come  over  the  mind  of  Sixtus  the  Fifth.  Deceived,  at 
the  commencement  of  his  pontificate,  by  the  artifices  of  the 
enemies  of  France,  this  pope  began  to  espouse  the  interests  of 
the  League  in  good  earnest ;  but  subsequently  discovering  his 
mistake,  he  applied  himself  to  appeasing  the  civil  dissensions 
of  the  kingdom.  The  writer  stated  that  he  had  been  assured 
from  various  quarters  that  Gregory  had  yielded  to  the  persua- 
sions of  the  ministers  and  pensioners  of  Spain,  but  that  he  had 
steadily  refused  to  give  any  credit  to  these  stories ;  for  he  re- 
membered that,  having,  on  his  return  from  Italy,  met  his  holi- 
ness, then  Cardinal  Sfondrato,  near  Torniceri,  in  Tuscany,  the 
latter,  who  was  on  his  way  to  take  part  in  the  election  of  a  suc- 
cessor to  Sixtus  the  Fifth,  had,  among  other  things,  made  this 
remark  :  "  It  is  necessary  that  the  King  of  France  be  King  of 
France,  and  the  King  of  Spain  be  King  of  Spain ;  for  the 
greatness  of  the  one  will  serve  as  a  barrier  to  the  ambition  of  the 
other."  He  warned  the  pope  that  the  true  Frenchmen,  should 
they  not  only  be  abandoned  but  openly  persecuted  by  the  Holy 
See,  might  be  forced  to  resort  to  strange  alliances,  alliances  from 
which  religion  might  be  exposed  to  new  perils.  The  prino 
the  blood,  dukes,  peers,  marshals,  officers  of  the  crown,  and  the 
entire  nobility  of  France — indeed,  all  good  Frenchmen — had 
no  other  intention  than  to  remain  always  very  Catholic ;  and 
they  hoped  to  be  able  by  their  services  to  oblige  their  king  to 
recognize  the  truth  of  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Apostolic  re- 
ligion, and  to  make  profession  of  it  after  the  example  of  all 
his  predecessors.1 

1  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  and  Memoires  de  Nevers,  ubi  supra.     De  Thou.  vii. 
786-788. 


1591.  GROWTH  OF  THE  TIERS  PARTL  259 

Nor  was  this  all ;  the  Roman  Catholic  nobles  of  Henry's 
court  resolved,  two  months  later,  to  repeat  the  experiment  of 
Dupieesis  sending  Luxembourg  himself  to  endeavor  to  treat 
^adesythe8"  with  the  pope.  Indeed,  Henry  the  Fourth  at  one 
wrifi^to  time  was  strongly  inclined  to  write  in  his  own  name 
Gregory.  to  Q.reg0ry#  jje  thought  it  best,  however,  first  to 
consult  Duplessis  Mornay  on  the  propriety  of  the  action,  and 
the  reply  he  received  was  strongly  adverse.  It  is  of  great  im- 
,  portance  to  please  the  pope,  said  the  Huguenot  counsellor,  but 
the  favor  of  God  is  of  still  greater  moment.  The  mere  writing 
of  a  letter  is  a  trifling  matter — one  can  write  to  anybody — but 
the  king  must  make  use  of  the  customary  forms,  or  he  will  only 
give  displeasure.  He  must  call  the  pope  his  "  very  holy  father ; " 
he  must  humbly  kiss  his  feet  and  do  him  homage,  and  so  doing 
he  will  recognize  him  as  the  head  of  the  Christian  Church. 
Report  will  exaggerate  the  action  and  make  it  still  worse.  Far 
better  were  it  to  let  the  French  cardinals  and  those  of  their  belief 
address  Gregory.  Let  them  complain  of  Sixtus  for  having  sent 
Cardinal  Cajetan,  and  of  the  present  legate  (the  Bishop  of  Pia- 
cenza)  for  conspiring  with  the  Spanish  ambassador  to  overturn 
the  kingdom,  and  for  consorting  with  rebels  against  the  au- 
thority of  the  lawful  sovereign.1 

But  if  Duplessis  Mornay  succeeded  by  his  remonstrances  in 
dissuading  the  Huguenot  king  from  addressing  an  undignified 
and  fruitless  appeal  to  the  chief  ecclesiastic  of  a  system  which 
he  still  professed  to  regard  as  corrupt,  if  not  anti-Christian,  he 
did  not  prevent  him  from  taking  such  a  part  in  the  proposed 
mission  of  Luxembourg  that  the  official  instructions  drawn  up 
for  his  guidance  bore  this  attestation  of  his  majesty's  approval  : 
"  Done  at  Mantes,  the  king  being  present,  by  deliberation  of 
the  aforesaid  princes,  as  well  of  the  blood  as  others,  of  the 
dukes,  peers,  chancellor,  marshals  of  France,  and  other  officers 
of  the  crown,  archbishops,  bishops,  prelates,  and  lords  of  the 
council  assembled  for  this  purpose,  I,  the  undersigned,  secretary 


1  "  Advis  sur  la  formalite  d'escrire  par  le  roi  au  pape,  envoye  a  sa  majeste, 
en  1591,  apres  le  siege  de  Chartres,"  in  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  v. 
42-48. 


260      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIL 

of  state,  being  in  attendance  by  their  command  and  by  the  au- 
thority of  the  king,  the  seventh  day  of  July,  1591."  ' 

It  is  unnecessary  here  to  rehearse  all  the  arguments  by  which 
Luxembourg  was  to  ply  the  pontiff,  or  the  complaints  he  was  to 
instructions  lodge  against  a  nuncio  who,  upon  his  arrival,  had 
Meder£uxem-  gone  straight  to  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  at  Rheims, 
bourg.  ^hus  from  tb.e   start  renouncing   the   character  of  a 

judge  and  assuming  the  attitude  of  a  party  to  the  quarrel.2 
On  one  or  two  points,  however,  the  explanations  to  be  given  to 
Gregory  are  worthy  of  attention.  He  was  to  be  informed  that 
it  was  no  fault  of  Henry,  that  he  had  been  prevented  by  the 
constant  war  waged  against  him  from  holding  the  assembly 
which  he  had  promised  to  convene  within  six  months  after  his 
accession  to  the  throne.  And  Luxembourg,  if  questioned  re- 
specting the  king's  disposition  to  be  converted,  was  ordered  to 
make  reply  that  his  Roman  Catholic  nobles  had  none  but  good 
hopes ;  yet  he  was  to  add  :  "  His  majesty  will  never  give  to 
those  that  cover  themselves  with  this  pretext  in  their  unjust 
uprising,  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  boast  that  they  have 
compelled  him  to  do  anything  by  force.  If  peace  be  restored 
to  the  realm,  there  will  be  an  opportunity  to  propose  to  him 
the  instruction  to  which  he  has  shown  a  willingness  to  submit, 
not  without  hope  of  some  good  results.  For  he  is  not  obstinate 
by  nature."  3  Respecting  the  repeal  of  the  proscriptive  edicts 
of  1585  and  1588,  Luxembourg  was  directed  not  only  to  plead 
the  necessity  of  such  an  arrangement,  that  Roman  Catholics 
and   Protestants  might  live  together   without  distrust,  but  to 


3  ll  Instruction  a  Monsieur  de  Luxembourg,  allant  a  Rome,"  in  Memoires  de 
Nevers,  ii.  512-524. 

2  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  very  first  thing  of  which  the  pope  was  to  be 
assured  was,  *'  that  the  aforesaid  lords  and  princes,  as  well  ecclesiastics  as 
others,  hold  it  as  altogether  certain  and  determined  that  outside  of  the  Cath- 
olic, Apostolic  and  Roman  Church  there  is  no  salvation.'' 

3  "  Mais  il  ne  donnera  jamais  cet  advantage  a  ceux  qui  se  couvrent  de  en 
pretexte  en  leur  injuste  soutenement,  de  se  pouvoir  vanter  de  luy  avoir  fait 
faire  quelque  chose  par  force  ;  et  que  si  la  paix  estoit  en  ce  royanme.  il  y 
auroit  lieu  de  luy  proposer  l'instruction  a  laquelle  il  a  monstre  vouloir  se 
soumettre,  non  sans  esperer  quelque  bon  effet.  Car  il  n'est  point  de  naturel 
opiniastre."     Ibid.,  ii.  520. 


1591.  GROWTH  OF  THE  TIERS  PARTI.  2tU 

point  to  the  fact  that,  under  the  edicts  of  pacification  which 
those  proscriptive  edicts  had  displaced,  Henry  the  Third  was 
able,  by  the  judicious  use  of  his  patronage,  to  sap  the  very 
existence  of  the  Huguenots.  If  we  may  believe  the  writers, 
"  most  of  them  were  withdrawing  from  the  party,  or  were 
bringing  up  their  children  in  the  Catholic  religion,  in  order  not 
to  be  deprived  of  the  honors  and  dignities  of  the  kingdom,  of 
which  they  saw  that  they  could  not  otherwise  have  a  share  ;  so 
that  it  is  evident  that  a  few  more  years  of  patience  would  have 
brought  them  all  back  to  the  Catholic  religion."  * 

Nor  did  the  Roman  Catholic  princes  and  nobles  forget  to 
throw  out  a  vague  hint  that  papal  obstinacy,  in  rejecting  their 
just  requests,  might  bring  about  in  France  results  as  disastrous 
as  those  that  had  been  witnessed  in  Germany,  England,  and  else- 
where. "  Despair,"  they  significantly  remarked,  "  often  urges 
men  on  to  actions  of  which,  but  for  it,  they  would  not  have 
entertained  a  thought."  a 

I  have  given  this  notice  of  Luxembourg's  instructions,  not 
that  they  were  ever  of  practical  moment,  but  simply  to  indicate 
the  drift  of  thought  with  the  nobles  who,  though  Roman  Cath- 
olics, were  faithful  to  the  king,  and  more  particularly  the  ten- 
dencies, still  latent,  which  were  speedily  to  develop  in  the  mind 
of  Henry  the  Fourth  himself.  For,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Lux- 
embourg, although  he  had  been  selected  for  the  mission,  and 
although  letters  were  written  in  various  directions  to  secure  for 
him  all  possible  support, 3  did  not  set  out  for  Italy.  The  incon- 
gruity was  too  great  between  the  conciliatory  attitude  which  the 
French  nobles  were  attempting  to  assume  towrard  the  pope  and 
the  defiant  attitude  of  the  highest  courts  of  law,  staunch  support- 
ers of  Henry's  claims,  which  called  Gregory  "  soi-disant,"  "  self- 
styled,"  pope,  pronounced  his  bulls  to  be  abusive  and  null  and 
void,  and  offered  a  reward  of  ten  thousand  livres  for  the  arrest 


'Ibid.,  ii.  521.  2  Ibid.,  ii.  522. 

3  Five  letters,  addressed  bj  the  French  nobles  to  the  pope's  nephew,  to  sev- 
eral cardinals,  to  the  French  ambassador,  to  the  Republic  of  Venice,  and  to  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  respectively,  are  given  in  the  Memoires  de  TSTevers, 
ii.  526-528.  Henry  IV.  himself  wrote  in  advance,  July  7,  1591,  to  the  Duke 
of  Retz,  respecting  Luxembourg's  expected  coming.    Lettres  missives,  iii.  417. 


262      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  All. 

of  his  nuncio,  Landriano.     "  The  royalist  parliament,"  says  De 

Thou,  "  opposed  this  embassy,  on  the  ground  that  the  decrees 

that  forbade   sending  to   Rome,  and    that   declared 

Parliament  ob-   _  ° 

jectstohis  Gregory  the  fourteenth  an  enemy  or  the  realm,  were 
too  recent.  The  Duke  of  Piney  (Luxembourg)  him- 
self declined  to  fulfil  this  commission  ;  and  accordingly  the 
matter  was  deferred  until,  the  aspect  of  affairs  having  changed, 
Cardinal  Pierre  de  Gondy  and  Jean  de  Yivonne,  Marquis  of 
Pisany,  went  on  an  embassy  to  Rome."  ' 

Meantime  the  course  of  events  had  at  length  convinced  the 
king  that  he  must  grant  to  the  Protestants  that  tardy  justice 
for  which  Duplessis  Mornay  and  other  representative  men  had 
Henry  an-  long  been  clamoring.  It  was  at  Mantes,  on  the  banks 
purpo8eeohfiR  of  tne  Seine,  and  early  in  the  month  of  July,  1591, 
totheProtet  tnat  ne  announced  his  purpose  to  the  royal  council, 
tants.  And  first,  in  order  to  disarm  prejudice,  and  to  defeat, 

so  far  as  might  be,  the  designs  of  the  pope  and  his  mischief-mak- 
ing nuncio,  Henry  made  a  declaration,  intended  not  merely  for 
the  persons  present,  but  for  publication  as  a  solemn  edict,  w  con- 
Thedeciara-  cerning  the  intention  which  he  lias  to  maintain  the 
teTjuiMan"  R°man  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church  and  Religion 
1591.  jn  this  realm,  together   with   the  rights   and   ancient 

liberties  of  the  Gallican  Church."  lie  again  referred  to  the 
first  acts  after  his  accession,  especially  to  his  declaration  of 
Saint  Cloud,  that  there  was  nothing  he  more  heartily  dc~ 
than  the  convocation  of  a  holy  and  free  council  for  the  settle- 
ment of  the  points  in  dispute ;  that  for  himself  he  had  no  ob- 
stinacy or  presumption,  but  intended  more  willingly  than  ever 
to  receive  all  good  instruction  that  might  be  given  him:  and 
that,  should  God  do  him  the  favor  to  show  him  if  he  were  in 
error,  he  purposed  embracing  what  he  might  see  to  be  com- 
manded of  God  and  for  his  own  salvation.  At  the  same  time  he 
had  pledged  his  word  and  his  oath  neither  himself  to  make,  nor 
to  suffer  to  be  made  by  others,  any  change  or  innovations  re- 
specting the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  but,  on  the  contrary,  to 


1  De  Thou,  vii.  (book  101),  802.     Stahelin  ;Uebertritt  Konig  Heinrichfl  IV. 

273)  seems  to  suppose  that  Luxembourg  actually  went  ou  this  mission. 


1591.  THE  DECLARATION   OF   MANTES.  263 

conserve  and  maintain  all  its  authority  and  privileges.  This  de- 
claration must  have  satisfied  all  who  had  taken  up  arms  osten- 
sibly for  the  defence  of  their  faith,  had  they  not  in  reality  been 
animated  by  a  desire  to  aggrandize  themselves — as  was  suffici- 
ently indicated  by  the  compacts  into  which  they  had  entered  for 
the  invasion  of  the  kingdom  in  conjunction  with  the  King  of 
Spain  and  the  dukes  of  Savoy  and  Lorraine.  Sixtus  the  Fifth, 
after  having  at  first  been  imposed  upon,  learned,  before  his 
death,  to  see  through  their  designs ;  but  the  present  pope,  a 
man  of  an  entirely  different  character,  had,  upon  the  simple 
assertion  of  the  French  rebels  that  the  king  was  conspiring 
against  the  Catholic  religion,  and  that  he  rejected  all  instruction, 
held  him  to  be  incapable  of  receiving  that  instruction.  More- 
over, he  had  sent  a  nuncio,  who  had  entered  France  without  the 
king's  knowledge  or  consent,  the  bearer  of  bulls  fulminated 
against  the  monarch  as  well  as  against  the  loyal  princes,  eccle- 
siastics, and  officers.  In  view  of  these  facts,  Henry  reiterated 
his  desire  to  be  instructed  by  a  free  council,  and  renewed  his 
oath  for  the  maintenance  of  the  established  church  ;  enjoining 
it  upon  the  parliaments  and  the  prelates  of  the  kingdom,  as 
being  their  proper  and  legitimate  function,  that  they  should 
take  cognizance  of  the  offence  committed  by  the  nuncio,  and 
should  adopt  appropriate  measures  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
recognized  privileges  of  the  Gallican  Church.1 

The  king  followed  this  declaration  with  a  long  and  forcible 
address,  intended  to  convince  any  members  of  his  council  who 
might  be  ignorant,  of  the  absolute  necessity  of  an  edict  in  be- 
half of  the  Protestants. 

"Every  one  knows,"  said  he,  "under  what  fatal  auspices  my 
predecessor  revoked  the  edict  of  1577,  at  the  solicitation  of  the 
Henry's  forci-  autliors  of  the  present  troubles,  who  had  extorted  from 
bie  address,  \xim  fay  force  edicts  on  other  subjects  also.  What 
disasters  did  not  this  revocation  entail !  At  length,  to  escape 
imminent  ruin,  Henry  the  Third  was  constrained  to  unite  with 


1  "  Lettres  patentes  du  roy,  contenans  declaration  de  rintentionqu'il  a  pour 
maintenir  l'eglise  et  religion  catholique,  '  etc.  Mantes,  July  4,  1591,  in  Mi- 
moires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  387-392  ;  De  Thou,  vii.  791,  792. 


264      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XII. 

those  very  Protestants  whom  the  rebels  wished  to  destroy  and 
annihilate.  And  he  entered  into  a  truce  with  them,  solely  for 
the  purpose  of  effecting  this  union,  which  was  so  greatly  desired, 
and  of  which  the  event  demonstrated  the  utility,  without,  how- 
ever, repealing  the  edicts  issued  against  my  person  and  my  ad- 
herents. 

"  These  prospective  edicts  have  been  condemned  and  abol- 
ished, as  it  were,  by  common  consent.  In  fact,  if  they  retained 
the  force  of  law,  I,  to  whom  you  show  such  marks  of  attachment 
and  fidelity  as  lawful  heir  of  the  crown,  should  have  forfeited 
my  rights  to  the  throne;  the  Protestants  would  merit  no  favor: 
you  yourselves  would  deserve  punishment  as  traitors,  since,  by 
your  courage  and  your  exertions  you  have  opposed  the  progress 
of  those  who  base  their  pretensions  on  these  edicts  and  have 
prevented  their  success.  These  men  must  therefore  be  resi>tc<l 
by  means  of  other  edicts,  and  of  an  ancient  law,  to  annul  the 
new  law;  in  order  that  our  royal  dignity  and  our  rights  be  not 
contested,  that  the  Protestants  may  enjoy  the  rights  poss< 
by  our  Catholic  subjects,  and,  finally,  that  you  yourselves  may 
be  able  to  render  us  the  obedience  which  is  our  due,  and  live  in 
peace  with  the  Protestants,  who,  under  the  eyes  and  with  the 
consent  of  all  men  not  blinded  by  party  hatred,  claim  these 
same  rights  despite  the  edicts — it  is  not  proper  that  such  a 
state  of  things  should  any  longer  be  tolerated.  In  fact,  nothing 
is  more  pernicious  in  a  state  than  to  suffer  the  existence  of  fac- 
tions, the  inexhaustible  source  of  disturbance  ;  especiallv  when 
he  who  ought  to  administer  justice  impartially,  allows  himself 
to  be  drawn  in  the  one  or  the  other  direction,  by  prejudice  or 
favor.  Is  it  not  better  for  us  to  lay  down  the  law  for  the 
Huguenots,  than  to  have  it  laid  down  by  them  \  It  is  to  be 
feared  that  there  may  arise  among  them  a  party  leader,  such  as 
formerly  was  Admiral  Coligny,  who,  by  presenting  a  petition  to 
the  king  in  the  name  of  all,  earned  the  title  of  Protector  of  the 
Protestants — a  title  which  he  retained  throughout  his  life.  But 
since  the  laws  of  the  realm  have  called  us  alone  to  the  royal 
dignity,  our  glory  demands  that  we  should  not  tolerate  the 
presence  of  a  number  of  kings  in  F ranee  ;  for  party  leaders  are 
kings,  so  to  speak.     Public  security  and  the  quietness  of  the 


1591.  THE  DECLARATION  OF  MANTES.  265 

state  demand  that  all  our  subjects,  being  united  under  a  single 
prince  and  under  the  authority  of  his  officers,  should  together 
obey  the  laws  they  administer. 

"We  have,"  he  added,  "still  more  urgent  reasons  for  conced- 
ing this  edict  to  the  Protestants.  You  are  not  ignorant  of  the 
fact  that  the  Queen  of  England  and  the  princes  of  the  Empire, 
soon  to  arrive  at  the  head  of  an  auxiliary  army,  will  not  fail  to 
make  exorbitant  demands,  in  order  to  obtain  conditions  favor- 
able for  the  French  Protestants.  How  far  will  they  not  carry 
their  claims,  should  this  matter  at  their  coming  remain  in  its 
present  state  ?  "What  shall  we  be  able  to  refuse  them  with  pro- 
priety, especially  under  circumstances  in  which  their  prayers, 
supported  by  the  presence  of  a  large  army,  will  in  some  fashion 
be  commands  ?  It  is  for  our  interest  not  to  have  these  foreign 
troops  for  enemies.  We  must  therefore  anticipate  their  requests ; 
we  must  abolish  and  annul  those  violent  and  bloody  edicts  which 
have  done  so  much  damage,  in  order  to  revive  that  salutary  edict 
which  our  predecessor  of  glorious  memory  used  to  call  peculiarly 
his  own  edict.  We  ardently  desire,  therefore,  that  you  should 
concur  with  us  in  so  necessary  a  plan  as  this.  It  is  the  sole 
means  of  parrying  the  extraordinary  requests  which  the  Prot- 
estant princes  are  ready  to  make  of  us.  Nothing  can  be  more 
conformable  to  justice  and  reason.  Those  who  think  otherwise 
must  condemn  the  war  in  which  we  are  engaged  for  the  defence 
of  the  state.  They  seek  only  an  opportunity  to  sow  divisions 
among  you."  1 

The  gathering  of  nobles  whom  Henry  addressed  was  a  large 
and  imposing  one,  including  not  merely  his  ordinary  council, 

but  also  a  considerable  body  of  ecclesiastics  of  the 
bon aione       highest  rank,  and  many  of  the  most  influential  lords 

and  statesmen.  The  Huguenot  king  was  gratified  to 
find  that  his  remarks  were  received  on  all  sides  with  respectful 
silence  and  evident  approval.     The  young  Cardinal  Bourbon 


1  De  Thou,  vii.  (book  101)  792-793.  The  historian,  who  took  a  leading  part 
in  carrying  out  this  measure,  and  was,  as  he  tells  us,  present  when  the  king 
made  his  address,  is  an  unimpeachable  authority  for  the  words  and  sentiments 
uttered  on  the  occasion. 


♦266      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XII. 

was  the  solitary  exception.  He  seemed  to  feel  himself  called 
upon  to  espouse  the  cause  of  intolerance,  evidently  expecting 
that  others  would  follow  his  lead.  He  loudly  exclaimed  that 
a  Very  Christian  kingdom  could  not  stand  this  motley  crew  of 
religious  sects.  These  new  doctrines,  he  said,  were  a  poison, 
and  France  would  never  cease  to  be  convulsed  so  long  as  she 
harbored  them.  A  good  deal  more  he  added,  making  up  in  the 
warmth  of  his  expressions  for  his  lack  of  eloquence.  Then  he 
rose  as  if  to  leave  the  room.  To  his  surprise  not  a  man  stirred 
— neither  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges,  nor  the  Bishops  of  Nan- 
tes, of  Maillezais  and  of  Bayeux.  As  a  demonstration  in  favor 
of  the  tiers  parti,  Cardinal  Bourbon's  angry  speech  was  a  fail- 
ure, complete  and  almost  ludicrous.  His  royal  cousin  contempt- 
uously bade  him  resume  his  seat,  and  the  discomfited  prelate 
was  forced  to  be  a  witness  to  the  enactment  of  a  law  in  favor  of 
the  Protestants  which  he  was  powerless  to  prevent.1 

In  the  edict  that  was  next  read  and  approved,  the  words 
"Huguenot,"  "Reformed,"  "Protestant,"  "  those  of  the  relig- 
Henryabro-  i°n?"  and  their  equivalents  were  conspicuously  absent. 
^edictlTof  Henry  simply  abrogated  the  pernicious  edicts  of  July. 
July,"  1585,  and  July,  158S,  and  restored  to  their  full  vigor 

the  edicts  of  pacification  previously  existing  — that  is  to  say.  the 
Edict  of  Poitiers,  of  September,  1577,  as  modified  in  some  of 
its  provisions  by  the  secret  articles  of  Bergerac  and  the  confer- 
ence of  Xerac,  and  virtually  re-enacted  at  the  p 
theedictsof    of  Fleix.     There  was  not  a  syllable  in  the  document 

pacification.  . 

to  give  orrence  to  the  most  sensitive  conscience  or  a 

loyal  Roman  Catholic.  Henry  dealt  with  sell-evident  truths 
the  quiet  and  fair  prospects  of  the  kingdom  under  the  previous 
legislation,  the  foreign  conspiracy  for  its  overthrow,  the  un- 
scrupulous methods  pursued  by  the  enemies  of  the  crown  t«» 
compel  Henry  to  repeal  his  edicts  of  pacification,  the  disasters 
flowing  from  the  intolerant  Edict  of  Nemours,  the  unmixed 
evil  for  which  the  Edict  of  Union  was  accountable,  culminating 
in  the  execrable  assassination  of  Henry  of  Valois.  It  was  an 
obvious  inference,  from  the  mere  mention  of  these  events,  that 


Ibid.,  ubi  supra;  Mezeray.  iii.  9C8.  in  Stahelin,  291  ;  Davila,  498. 


1591.  THE   DECLARATION   OF   .MANTES.  267 

the  repeal  of  the  laws  which  had  occasioned  all  this  misery  was 
not  only  proper  but  necessary.  Their  very  memory  ought  to  be 
consigned  to  everlasting  oblivion.  Henry  would  have  been 
false  to  the  traditions  of  the  period,  had  he  failed  to  style  "  ir- 
revocable'' his  revocatory  edict  itself,  but  this  designation  was 
limited,  in  point  of  fact,  by  a  sentence  inserted  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  the  historian  De  Thou,  as  he  informs  us,  and  couched 
in  the  following  terms:  "All  this  provisionally,  until  that  it 
may  please  God  to  give  us  the  grace  to  reunite  our  subjects  by 
the  establishment  of  a  good  peace  in  our  kingdom,  and  to  pro- 
vide for  the  matter  of  religion,  in  pursuance  of  the  promise 
which  we  made  at  our  accession  to  the  crown." ' 

The  Protestants  might  have  had  somewhat  to  find  fault  with 
in  an  edict  wherein  the  king,  their  professed  fellow-believer, 
Henr  s  atti-  seemed  t°  figure  altogether  as  a  stranger  to  their 
tude.  faith,   making  no  reference,  from  beginning  to  end, 

to  their  common  religion,  while  on  the  other  hand  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  speak  of  "  the  Catholic,  Apostolic  and  Roman  re- 
ligion," quite  as  though  he  were  one  of  its  adherents.  But  the 
Protestants  were  already  well  used  to  such  cavalier  treatment 
at  the  hands  of  the  king  for  whom  they  had  fought  and  bled, 
and  the  coming  Abjuration  was  already  throwing  distinct  and  un- 
mistakable shadows  before  it.  The  eloquent  La  Roche 
chandieu       Chandieu,  companion  of  Henry  and  of  D' Amours  at 

dies  of  grief.  , 

Coutras,  foresaw  the  approaching  catastrophe,  and  the 
faithful  Huguenot  minister,  it  is  said,  died  of  grief  at  the  mel- 
ancholy prospect.2 

1  "  Edit  du  roy,  contenant  restablissement  des  edits  de  pacification,  faitz  par 
le  deffunct  roy  Henri  troisiesme  sur  les  troubles  de  ce  royaume,"  Mantes,  July 
1591,  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  383-6.  See  Recueil  des  choses  mcmorables, 
738 ;  De  Thou,  vii.  793,  794. 

2  "  Voila  le  roi  a,  la  inesse  nouvelle,"  writes  Agrippa  d'Aubigne  (iii.  book  iv. 
c.  10,  p.  363)  referring  to  the  events  of  the  abjuration  in  1593,  "  qui  fut  moins 
estrange,  comme  preveue  par  plusieurs,  et  entr'autres  par  la  Roche-Chandieu, 
qui  en  mourut  de  desplaisir." — This  eminent  Huguenot  minister —  "  ce  grand 
personage,"  as  Beza  styles  him — died  greatly  regretted  February  23,  1591,  as 
we  learn  from  a  very  interesting  MS.  letter  of  Beza  to  Viscount  Turenne, 
dated  Geneva,  March  9  (O.  S.),  1591,  first  printed  in  the  Bulletin  de  la 
Societe  de  l'histoire  du  Protestantisme  francais,  i.  277-279. 


268      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XIL 

Meantime,  thankful  at  least  to  be  freed  from  the  legal  penalties 
which,  though  unexecuted,  still  hung  over  their  heads,  the  Protes- 
tants welcomed  with  delight  an  edict  which  definitely  proclaimed 
the  most  loyal  part  of  the  nation  to  be  no  longer  outcasts.1 

Jacques  Auguste  de  Thou  was  intrusted  with  the  honorable 
and  important  duty  of  securing  the  registration  of  the  king's 
two  edicts  by  the  loyal  court  that  claimed  to  be  the  true  Par- 
liament of  Paris,  although  now  sitting  at  Tours,  and  obtaining 
a  declaration  from  this  body  respecting  the  actions  of  the  pope 
and  his  intrusive  nuncio  similar  to  that  made  by  the  judges  at 
Chalons.  In  both  respects  he  was  successful.  Not  only  did 
the  individual  members  of  the  Parliament  of  Tours  declaim 
with  learning  and  eloquence  against  papal  aggression,  recall- 
ing more  than  one  historical  event  to  support  their  rhetoric, 
ThePariia-  but  tney  j0"1^  rendered  a  decree,  on  the  fifth  of 
SunfcIs°the  August,  in  which,  going  even  farther  than  their 
SeS thed reg"  ^retnren  °^  Chalons,  they  declared  "Gregory,  self- 
edict.  styled  pope,  fourteenth  of  the  name,  to  be  an  enemy 

of  peace,  of  the  unity  of  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Apostolic  re- 
ligion, of  the  king  and  his  estate;"  and,  moreover,  "an  adhe- 
rent of  the  conspiracy  of  Spain,  an  abettor  of  rebels,  guilty  of  the 
very  cruel,  inhuman  and  detestable  parricide  treacherously  per- 
petrated on  the  person  of  Henry  the  Third,  king  of  very  blessed 
memory,  Very  Christian  and  Very  Catholic."  The  next  day  the 
edict  in  favor  of  the  Protestants  was  registered.  The  same  for- 
mality had  been  observed  at  Chalons  about  a  fortnight  earlier.* 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  the  Parliament  of 
Paris,  now  completely  overawed  by  the  League,  suffered  these 
Retaliatory  and  other  similar  decrees  of  courts  whose  legal  ex- 
reCSnpariiae  istence  it  denied,  to  pass  unnoticed.  A  war  of  retali- 
ment  at  Paris.  atory  decisions  arose.  As  the  Chalons  judges  had  or- 
dered the  burning  of  the  pope's  bulls,  so  the  Paris  judges  di- 
rected the  public  executioner  to  tear  in  pieces  and  burn  publicly 


1  "  Je  loue  Dieu,"  wrote  Duplessis  Mornay  to  his  friend  De  Thou,  July  18, 
1591,  "qu'elle  ait  este  mise  en  vos  mains  pour  Papporter  a  Tours."  M<  moires, 
v.  64. 

2  See  "Arrest  de  la  cour  de  parlement  seante  a  Tours,"  August  5,  1691,  in 
Mc moires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  393-395,  De  Thou,  vii.  794-799,  and  Davila.  503. 


1591.  THE  DECLARATION   OF  MANTES.  269 

an  order  upon  which  they  heaped  every  opprobrious  epithet, 
and  which  they  forbade  all  men  from  obeying.1 

The    Protestants   had  at  length  gained  some  part  of  their 

rights,   though  far  less  than  they  had  good  reason  to  expect 

under  a  king  of  their  own  faith.     The  edict  in  their  favor  was 

provisional.     The  mixed  courts  to  secure  justice  for 

Scanty  justice  *  ,         ,      ,  .  •'     . 

done  to  the      Protestants  m  their  suits  with  Roman  Catholics,  were 

Huguenots.  ...  ,  ,  i         -n  -i  •  f    -r» 

not  again  instituted  as  under  the  Jidict  or  ±>ergerac. 
The  Parliament  of  Tours  openly  maintained  that  the  practice 
of  Henry  the  Third — who,  while  pledging  the  Huguenots  by  his 
edict  equal  admission  with  Roman  Catholics  to  all  offices  and 
dignities,  had  taken  good  care  never  to  appoint  them  to  such 
offices  and  dignities — must  serve  as  the  rule  under  his  successor 
as  well.  In  short,  the  inferiority  in  the  eye  of  the  law  to 
which  the  adherents  of  the  Reformed  doctrines  had  been  con- 
demned was  apparently  to  be  maintained  indefinitely.2 

A  convocation  of  the  French  hierarchy  at  Chartres  followed 
the  example  set  by  the  laity,  and,  two  months  later,  solemnly 
pronounced  the  bulls  of  the  pope,  who  was  "  badly  informed," 
to  be  null  and  void ;  but  concluded  the  declaration  with  an  ex- 
Deciaration  of  hortation  to  all  the  f aithf ul  that  their  prayers  should 
chaSrefy  at  ascend  to  Almighty  God  that  He  would  deign  to  in- 
duce Henry  to  become  a  Roman  Catholic,  "as,  from 
the  time  of  his  accession  to  the  crown,  he  gave  us  reason  to 
hope  that  he  would  do."  3 

Xot  content,  however,  with  making  this  declaration,  and  thus 
fulfilling  the  sole  object  for  which  they  had  been  convened  by 
the  king,  the  clergy  undertook  some  other  matters  which  but  too 
clearly  revealed  the  hand  of  Cardinal  Bourbon  and  the  intrigu- 
ing "  tiers  parti."  They  begged  permission  of  his  majesty  to 
write  and  send  an  envoy  to  the  very  pope  whose  bulls  they  had 
just  condemned,  whom  the  Parliaments  of  Tours  and  Chalons 

1  De  Thou,  vii.  799.  See  also  a  later  "  arret"  of  December  22,  1591,  in 
Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iii.  397-899. 

8  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Turenne,  October  3,  1591,  Memoires,  v.  84  ;  Benoist, 
i.  80,  81  ;  Stahelin,  293,  294. 

3  "  Declaration  du  clerge  de  France,"  Chartres,  September  21,  1591,  in 
Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  v.  72-75. 


270      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIL 

had  pronounced  an  enemy  of  peace  and  an  abettor  of  the  assas- 
sins of  the  late  king,  and  on  the  head  of  whose  legate  a  price 
had  been  set.  They  resolved  to  defer  to  some  future  time  the 
consideration  of  the  order  to  be  established  for  the  provision  of 
benefices  throughout  the  kingdom — the  very  thing  to  which, 
above  all  others,  they  ought  to  have  applied  themselves  in  the 
present  anomalous  state  of  the  ecclesiastical  relations  of  France. 
They  had  the  audacity  to  propose  that  parliament  be  forbidden 
to  take  cognizance  of  any  disturbances  in  the  religious  relations 
of  the  realm,  thus  robbing  the  supreme  court  of  one  of  its  im- 
memorial rights.  All  this  was  but  prefatory  to  the  request 
that  Henry  would  allow  himself  to  be  instructed  and  become  a 
Roman  Catholic,  and  that  he  would  look  with  favor  upon  the 
undertaking  of  the  clergy  to  make  peace — "  as  if,*'  wrote  the 
indignant  Duplessis  Mornay,  "  as  if  the  king  were  not  striving 
for  that  very  thing,  and  had  not  declared  that  for  every  step 
taken  by  others  toward  him,  he  was  ready  to  take  four  steps 
toward  them  !  "  1     The  action  of  the  assembled  prel- 

Parliament  i   •  i  i   «i   •  iii 

resents  their    ates  effected  uotliing  but  to  exhibit  more  clean  v  the 

usurpation.  .  ..  . 

trouble  which  the  clergy  stood  ready  to  give  on  oc- 
casion. Parliament  justly  resented  the  assembly's  attempt  to 
usurp  the  functions  of  the  most  august  tribunal  of  the  realm. 
Henry  was  firm  in  rejecting  the  proposal  to  confer  upon  ec 
siastics  the  office  of  umpires  in  settling  the  terms  of  peace.  Bat 
although  the  convocation  of  the  clergy  at  Chartres  was  so  bar- 
ren of  practical  results,  it  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  that  one 
remarkable  suggestion  was  made  and  considered  during  the 
sessions.  Excommunicated  as  were  the  prelates  by  the  terms 
of  Gregory's  monitorial  bulls,  for  not  having  renounced  their 
fealty  to  the  king  within  fifteen  days  after  the  papal  notifica- 


1  The  principal  authority  for  the  articles  of  the  assembly  of  Chartres  is  the 
"  Depesche  envoyee  de  Tours  par  M.  Duplessis  au  Roy,  le  3  Octobre  1591," 
in  the  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  v.  85,  etc.,  together  with  the  memorial 
sent  by  the  same  person  to  the  Parliament  of  Tours  to  set  forth  the  assault 
made  upon  its  authority  (ibid.,  v.  89-94V  The  service  thus  rendered  to  the 
supreme  court  won  for  him  the  thanks  of  the  judges  and  an  invitation  to  con- 
fer with  them  at  Tours.  See  also  the  Vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay  (Ley den, 
1647),  161. 


1591.  THE   DECLARATION   OF  MANTES.  271 

tion,  and  precluded  as  they  were  by  decree  of  parliament  from 
sending  to  Rome  for  any  of  those  purposes  for  which  the  au- 
thority of  the  See  of  St.  Peter  was  supposed  to  be  necessary,  it 
was  gravely  proposed  that  the  French  Church  should  cut  loose 
from  Italy  by  recognizing  as  its  head  a  Patriarch  of  its  own. 
The  institu-  ^e  are  assured  that  the  single  great  obstacle  that 
Frenctipatri-  prevented  the  realization  of  the  plan  was  the  ina- 
archproposed-bility  of  Cardinal  Bourbon,  who  had  never  received 
priestly  orders,  to  obtain  the  coveted  dignity.  The  Archbishop 
of  Bourges,  upon  whom  the  choice  would  naturally  have  fallen  l 
as  the  highest  of  the  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  who  had  espoused 
the  royal  side,  and  as  the  only  French  prelate  already  enjoying 
the  titular  rank  of  Patriarch,  not  only  would  have  been  glad  to 
accept  the  rank,  but  exerted  all  his  influence  to  secure  it.  Bour- 
bon, however,  would  not  permit  his  brother  archbishop  to  get 
the  prize  which  he  himself  could  not  attain.2 

Meantime  the  royal  arms  had  been  far  from  unsuccessful. 
After  a  long  siege,  lasting  from  February  to  April,  Henry  him- 
self had  captured  Chartres,  a  city  of  great  importance 

Henry  takes       .  r  ..  7  ,J  .,,  i    «. 

chartres  and   in  the  present  crisis,     h  or  Pans  was  still  pressed  for 

want  of  the  necessaries  of  life.     Corbeil  and  Lagny, 

again  in  their  opponents'  hands,  cut  off  from  the  inhabitants  of  the 

capital  their  sources  of  supply  along  the  upper  Seine,  but  hith- 


1  Strictly  speaking,  the  title  of  primate  was  regarded  as  belonging  either  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Sens  or  to  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons.  The  claim  of  the 
former  seems  to  have  been  the  best,  and  he  was  "Primat  des  Gaules  et  de 
Germanie  ;"  the  archbishop  of  the  larger  and  more  populous  city,  however, 
gradually  made  good  his  claim  throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  kingdom 
(see  Rise  of  the  Huguenots,  i.  118).  But  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges  alone 
had  the  advantage  of  being  styled  Patriarch.  "Les  ennemis  de  ce  prelat, 
qui  etoit  deja  Patriarche — dignite  qui  n'apartient  en  France  qu'au  seul  Arche- 
veque  de  Bourges — disoient,"  etc.,  De  Thou,  viii.  (book  103),  78. 

2  "Et  peut-estre  que  le  cardinal  y  eust  consenty,  s'il  eust  eu  les  qualites 
requises  pour  l'estre  luy  mesme  ;  mais  comme  il  n'estoit  pas  pretre,  et  qu'ainsi 
il  eust  este  contrainct  de  ceder  cet  honneur  a  un  autre,  il  rejetta  cet  expe- 
dient et  traita  mal  de  paroles  l'Archeveque  de  Bourges,  qui  dans  l'imagination 
qu'il  avoit,  que  cette  dignite  luy  appartenoit  a  cause  du  titre  de  Primat  attache 
a  son  siege,  briguoit  de  toutes  ses  forces  de  le  faire  agreer  a  l'assemblee." 
Mezeray,  Histoire  de  France,  iii.  968,  apud  Stahelin,  328. 


272      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ctt  XII. 

erto  the  rich  "  pays  chartrain  "  had  somewhat  made  up  the  de- 
ficiency. The  preachers  endeavored  to  quiet  the  popular  alarm 
at  the  tidings  that  the  granary  of  Paris  was  threatened,  by 
assuring  them  that  Henry  would  not  accomplish  his  undertak- 
ing. An  Italian  monk,  in  a  Lenten  address  on  Shrove  Tuesday, 
in  the  Sainte  Chapelle,  pledged  his  soul's  salvation  that  Char- 
tres  would  never  be  captured.1  The  denizens  of  Chartres  were 
almost  equally  assured  of  a  favorable  issue  ;  for  was  not  their 
city  the  only  one  in  Christendom  that  could  boast  of  being  the 
fortunate  possessor  of  the  ancient  Druidical  image  upon  which 
was  the  prophetical  inscription,  carved  long  before  the  advent 
of  Christ,  or,  indeed,  the  birth  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  foretelling 
the  miraculous  Incarnation  ? 2  And  was  not  the  virtue  emana- 
ting from  the  image  so  potent  that,  according  to  the  popular 
belief,  a  soldier's  shirt  which  had  been  placed  upon  it  became 
instantly  proof  against  the  deadliest  blows  of  the  enemy,  nay, 
even  against  cannon-balls — in  attestation  of  the  truth  of  which, 
numerous  garments  supposed  to  have  saved  their  owners'  lives 
were  hung,  in  lieu  of  tapestry,  on  the  walls  of  the  shrine  1 3  But 
the  "  Yirgo  paritura  "  of  Chartres  seemed  to  be  as  deaf  to  the 
supplications  of  her  devotees,  as  Sainte  Genevieve  had  been  to 
the  litanies  of  the  Parisians  on  occasion  of  the  attack  upon 
Saint  Denis.  On  the  nineteenth  of  April,  just  ten  days  after 
the  Italian's  venturesome  assertion,  Chartres  surrendered  to 
the  royal  army,4  and  the  preachers  had  to  content  themselves 
with  venting  their  impotent  wrath  in  threats  and  imprecations. 
The  "  Politiques,"  as  usual,  came  in  for  their  full  share  of  de- 
nunciation.    Boucher  said  that  they  must  all  be  killed  ;  Rose, 


1  Lestoile,  ii.  50. 

2  See  Rise  of  the  Huguenots,  i.  59.     De  Thou,  vii.  777. 

5  "Les  gens  de  guerre,  craignant  les  coups,  ont  accoutume  de  vetir  cette 
image  d'une  chemise  de  toile,  laquelle  puis  apres  ils  portent  en  guerre,  les  uns 
dessus,  les  autres  dessous  leur  harnois,  ay  ant  cette  opinion,  que  les  coups  de 
canon  mcme  ne  les  sauroient  offenser.  Et  de  fait,  plusieurs  ayant  par  hazard 
echappi  de  grands  coups,  y  ont  fait  des  tapisseries  de  leurs  chemises  ;  mais," 
adds  the  writer,  with  quiet  sarcasm,  "  celles  qui  sont  percces  demeurent  en 
chemin."     Beze,  Histoire  ecclcsiastique  des  Eglises  Refornii'es,  i.  108. 

4  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  735-737  ;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  244, 
etc.;  De  Thou,  vii.  777-782;  Davila,  494-496. 


1591.  HENRY'S  DIFFICULT  POSITION.  273 

that  a  blood-letting  after  the  fashion  of  Saint  Bartholomew's 
Day  was  needed,  and  that  the  throat  of  the  disease  must  be 
cut ;  Commolet,  that  the  death  of  the  Politiques  was  the  life  of 
the  Catholics.  St.  Andre  offered  to  lead  to  the  slaughter  in 
person,  while  the  truculent  curate  of  St.  Germain  l'Auxerrois, 
apparently  in  disgust  that  his  words  excited  derision  rather  than 
enthusiasm  in  the  hearers,  made  bold  to  assert  that  all  who 
laughed  were  Politiques,  and  that  the  men  that  hung  about  the 
street-corners  waiting  for  news  ought  to  be  dragged  to  the 
banks  of  the  Seine  and  drowned.1 

The  capture  of  Noyon  followed  that  of  Chartres — Noyon, 
that  small  city  of  northern  France  which,  far  from  honoring 
the  memory  of  John  Calvin,  has  from  that  time  to  this  ap- 
peared to  experience  deep  shame  at  having  given  birth  to  one 
of  the  greatest  minds  of  our  modern  civilization.  But  on  the 
coast  new  perils  threatened  France.  Philip  of  Spain  had  at 
length  begun  to  send  troops  as  well  as  money  for  the  conquest 
of  a  country  he  hoped  soon  to  call  his  own.  His  first  venture 
was  in  the  west,  where,  in  the  month  of  October,  1590,  his  fleet 
landed  a  body  of  Hve  thousand  Spanish  soldiers  in  the  commo- 
dious harbor  of  Blavet,  where  they  were  soon  strong  enough, 
with  the  assistance  of  the  Duke  of  Mercceur,  to  assault  and  take 
the  town  of  Hennebon.2  The  selection  of  the  point  of  attack 
a  Spanish  was  110^  without  a  plan.  Philip  claimed  to  have  in- 
Brittanndsin  herited  the  rights  of  his  deceased  wife,  Isabella  or 
Elizabeth  of  France,  who  was  a  great-granddaughter 
of  that  Anne  de  Bretagne  who  had  brought  to  Louis  the 
Twelfth  the  magnificent  dowry  of  one  of  the  great  provinces  of 
France.  In  the  kingdom  at  large  the  Salic  law  might  be,  or 
might  not  be,  what  some  Spaniards  asserted  it  was,  a  mere  legal 
fiction  ;  but  there  was  no  question  that  Brittany  was  a  female 
fief,  and  could  be  held  and  transmitted  by  a  woman.  The  roy- 
alists of  France  maintained,  indeed,  that  the  ancient  duchy  had 
been  incorporated  in  the  kingdom  and  could  not  be  separated 
from  it ;  none  the  less  was  it  a  standing  menace  to  Henry  that, 


1  Lestoile,  ii.  50. 

2  De  Thou,  vii.  (book  99),  678,  679. 
Vol.  II.— 18 


274  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF   NAVARRE       Ctt  X1L 

for  a  year,   his  arch-enemy  had  been  entrenched  on  French 
soil. 

But  more  inauspicious  for  the  king  than  the  Spanish  foothold 
gained  in  southern  Brittany,  and  quite  effacing  any  success  which 
his  troops  might  lately  have  gained  over  Mercoeur  in  that  prov- 
ince, was  the  death  of  one  Huguenot  soldier,  fatally  injured  in 
the  siege  of  the  little  town  of  Lamballe.     Francois  de 

Death  of  ^_      to  .       .  * 

Franpoisdeia  la  JN oue  was,  it  is  true,  a  man  or   three-score,  and  it 

Noue,  and  .  i       i      j  /»  i      i   • 

Franpoisde  was  many  years  since  he  had  first  made  his  courage  to 
be  respected  by  friend  and  foe  alike  in  the  war.-  of 
the  Low  Countries.  But  the  hero  of  so  many  battles,  through 
which  his  iron  arm  had  stood  him  in  good  stead,  was  as  ardent 
and  almost  as  strong  as  ever.  Indeed,  his  devotion  to  the  cause 
which,  at  great  pecuniary  expense  and  the  cost  of  toils,  wounds, 
and  repeated  imprisonments,  he  had  maintained  without  flinch- 
ing, had  rather  grown  than  diminished.  A  Huguenot  from 
deep  conviction,  his  last  hours  reflected  the  serenity  of  a  Chris- 
tian to  whom  death  has  no  terrors.  So  long  as  he  was  able,  lie 
listened  with  attention  to  one  of  his  friends  who,  at  his  request, 
read  to  him  those  precious  psalms  which,  whether  in  peace  or 
in  war,  in  the  closet  or  on  the  battlefield,  in  sickness  or  in  health, 
were  never  far  frOm  the  thoughts  or  the  lips  of  the  ELuguei 
at  any  time  betwreen  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century 
and  the  days  of  the  Revocation  and  the  "  Desert."  What  had 
supplied  enthusiasm  to  so  many  at  the  charge  of  Coutras  or  Ivry, 
now  administered  comfort  to  La  Xoue  at  the  close  of  life. 
When  failing  utterance  gave  him  premonition  of  the  near  ap- 
proach of  death,  he  directed  his  attendant  to  read  him  the  words 
of  Job  respecting  the  resurrection,  and  when  asked  whether  he 
believed  this  article  of  faith,  he  replied,  with  eyes  upturned 
toward  heaven,  that  as  he  had  lived,  so  he  now  died  in  the  hope 
that  he  would  rise  again  from  the  dead.1  "What  rendered  the 
king's  loss  still  greater  was  that  the  death  of  Francois  d< 
Noue,  on  the  fourth  of  August,  was  followed,  on  the  eighth  of 


1  De  Thou,  a  Roman  Catholic,  may  serve  as  our  voucher  that  the  accounts 
of  the  peaceable  end  of  La  Xoue  given  by  Protestant  writers  are  not  exagger- 
ated.    Histoire  universelle,  viii.  (book  102)  7,  8. 


1591.  HENRY'S   DIFFICULT  POSITION.  275 

October,  by  the  death  of  Francois  de  Chatillon,  the  son  of  Ad- 
miral Coligny.1  Ilenr}7  could,  at  this  critical  period  of  his 
course,  as  little  spare  the  young  man  in  the  dawn  of  a  military 
career  of  extraordinary  promise,  as  the  veteran  counsellor. 

Henry  retained,  however,  some  brave  and  successful  captains, 
upon  whose  shoulders  the  mantle  of  La  Xoue  and  Chatillon 
might  worthily  rest.  Chief  among  these,  doubtless,  was  Lesdi- 
Expioits  of  guieres,  who,  not  satisfied  with  the  capture  of  Gre- 
Lesdiguidres.  no|)je?  never  grew  tired  of  roaming  through  the  high- 
er Alps,  transporting  his  forces  with  the  greatest  celerity  over 
roads  so  rough  as  almost  to  deter  the  peasant  when  he  threaded 
his  way  on  the  sides  of  precipices  with  his  sure-footed  mule,  and 
penetrating  with  apparent  ease  the  mountain  passes  where  the 
traveller,  despite  grand  roads  laid  out  by  the  highest  engineer- 
ing skill  of  our  times,  is  once  and  again  tempted  to  turn  back 
through  fear  or  fatigue.  One  day  he  dashed  down  from  the 
dizzy  heights  upon  the  plains  of  the  Viennois  and  the  banks  of 
the  Rhone,  striking  terror  among  the  adherents  of  the  League 
and  encouraging  the  friends  of  the  king.  The  next  day  he 
was  on  his  way  toward  Provence,  following  up  the  steep 
course  of  the  Drac  to  its  springs,  only  to  descend  on  the  other 
side  of  the  mountains  by  the  sinuous  Bench  and  Durance.  Ef- 
fecting a  junction  with  the  forces  of  La  Valette  in  the  lower 
lands  of  Provence,  he  was  soon  afterward  seen  defeating  the 


1  Frangois  de  Chatillon  was  only  thirty-four  years  old  when  he  died  in  his 
castle  of  Chltillon-sur-Loing.  Some  of  his  exploits  have  heen  chronicled  in 
these  pages.  He  was  an  adept  in  military  science,  and  had  already  made  great 
attainments  in  mathematics  and  mechanics.  According  to  De  Thou,  he  contri- 
buted greatly  to  the  capture  of  Chartres,  and,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  he  was 
engaged  in  equipping  vessels  for  the  Indies.  Henry  the  Fourth  had  appointed 
him  Admiral  of  Guyenne,  and  the  monarch  showed  his  appreciation  of  his 
great  merits  by  conferring  the  office  upon  his  children.  "He  had,"  says  the 
historian  just  referred  to,  "  acquired  so  great  a  reputation,  that  men  had  no 
difficulty  in  believing  that  he  would  one  day  have  surpassed  the  reputation  of 
his  father  and  grandfather  in  the  profession  of  arms,  had  not  death  prevented 
it"  Histoire  universelle,  viii.  (book  102)46.  See  the  account  of  his  life  in 
Haag,  France  protestante  (new  ed.),  iv.  215-223,  and  especially  Count  Jules 
Delaborde's  recent  monograph,  a  model  of  conscientious  and  appreciative 
biography. 


276       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Oh  XII. 

troops  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy  near  Esparron,  at  the  foot  of  the 
hills  appropriately  named  "  la  chaine  de  Sainte  Victoire,"  and 
pushing  on  for  the  relief  of  beleaguered  Berre,  under  the  very 
walls  of  disloyal  Aix,  to  Marignane  and  the  shores  of  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea.  He  was  almost  as  much  at  home  on  the  eastern, 
as  on  the  western  slopes  of  the  Alps.  When  he  had  succored 
the  French  garrison  of  Exilles,  in  the  Italian  valley  of  the  Dora 
Riparia,  he  returned  with  equal  expedition  to  Grenoble,  in  order 
that  he  might  be  in  time  to  dispute  the  passage  of  the  troops  of 
the  Duke  of  Savoy,  reinforced  by  the  mercenaries  sent,  at  the 
pope's  expense,  from  Rome  and  the  Milanese.  The  beautiful 
stretch  of  the  Gresivaudan,  through  which  the  Isere  makes  its 
way  before  issuing  into  the  broader  fields  of  Dauphiny,  is  said 
to  have  been  celebrated  for  the  extraordinary  number  of  nobles 
Battle  of  who  inhabited  it.1  The  remarkable  engagement,  which 
septlmb^ig,  now  took  place  in  the  vicinity  of  the  village  of  Pont- 
1591'  charra,  occurred  at  the  very  foot  of  the  castle  Bayard, 

the  former  home  of  the  great  general  of  Francis  the  First.  Men 
thought  that  the  spot  had  been  purposely  selected  ;  certain  it 
was  that  the  manes  of  the  brave  Pierre  du  Terrail,  the  knight 
without  fear  and  without  reproach,  were  placated  by  a  slaughter 
of  the  enemies  of  France  so  complete  as  almost  to  baffle  belief.1 
On  the  day  of  the  battle — the  nineteenth  of  September — two 
thousand  five  hundred  Savoyards  were  killed,  while  three  hun- 
dred horsemen  and  almost  all  the  colonels  and  captains  were 
taken  prisoners.  On  the  morrow,  two  thousand  men  more,  of 
the  pope's  forces,  unable  to  make  their  way  home,  surrendered 
unconditionally.  Five  hundred  were  butchered  by  the  pitiless 
soldiers  before  they  could  be  stopped  by  the  officers;  the  rest 
were  sent  back  to  Italy,  having  promised  never  again  to  bear 
arms  against  the  King  of  France.  The  booty  was  immense — 
chains  and  collars  of  precious  metal,  money,  and  the  like — to 


1  "La  vallee  de  Gresivaudan,  celebre  par  la  quantite  de  noblesse  qui 
l'habite."     De  Thou,  viii.  (book  102)  18. 

2  "  Comme  si  on  avoit  eu  dessein  de  les  imnioler  aux  manes  du  brave  Pierre 
du  Terrail,  surnomme  Bayard,  du  noni  de  ce  chateau  qu'il  avoit  fait  batir." 
Ibid.,  viii.  21. 


1591.  HENRY'S  DIFFICULT  POSITION.  277 

the  value,  it  was  estimated,  of  two  hundred  thousand  crowns  of 
gold.  The  French  maintained  that  they  themselves  lost  but 
four  men  killed  and  had  but  two  men  wounded.1 

The  jealousies  that  had  long  subsisted  among  the  adherents 
of  the  League  at  Paris  now  broke  out  into  an  open  flame.  It 
was  wrell  known  that  the  mischievous  legate  of  the  pope,  Sega, 
Bishop  of  Piacenza,  recently  created  a  cardinal,  co-operating  with 
the  Spanish  ambassador,  Don  Diego  de  Ibarra,  was  as  anxious 
to  further  the  designs  of  Philip  the  Second  upon  the  crown  of 
of  France  as  was  the  ambitious  Duke  of  Mayenne  to  thwart 
them  and  to  secure  the  prize  for  himself.  Early  in  ^November 
the  legate  set  on  foot  a  conspiracy  which  bore  fruit  about  the 
middle  of  the  month  in  a  sanguinary  tragedy  intended  to  mani- 
fest to  the  world  the  impotence  of  the  leader  of  the  French 
portion  of  the  League.  To  the  success  of  the  Spanish  designs 
the  Parliament  of  Paris  constituted  the  most  formidable  ob- 
stacle. Judges  who  had  not  been  loyal  enough  to  forsake  the 
capital  and  take  their  seats  at  Tours,  in  accordance  with  the 
command  of  Henry  the  Third,  were  nevertheless  too  patriotic  to 
countenance  a  deliberate  attempt  to  betray  the  country  to  a 
foreigner,  and  that  foreigner  one  who  had  been  an  undisguised 
rival  of  Henry  the  Second  and  his  sons.  The  seditious  "  Seize," 
who  from  being  representatives  of  the  sixteen  quarters  of  Paris 
had  come  to  aspire  to  figure  as  petty  kings,  and  to  manage  the 
affairs  of  the  nation,  readily  yielded  to  the  legate's  suggestions. 
Private  resentment  somewhat  shaped  the  particular  direction  of 
the  blow  they  struck.  On  his  way  to  the  parliament  house,  Bar- 
Murder  of  nabe  Brisson,  the  first  president  of  the  highest  judi- 
BriioiTby  c^al  body  in  France,  was  suddenly  arrested  by  agents 
the  "  seize."  appointed  for  the  purpose,  and  hurried  off  to  the  prison 
of  the  "  Petit  Chatelet."  Crome,  one  of  the  "  Sixteen  "  and  the 
president's  sworn  enemy,  soon  presented  himself  and  read  to  the 


1  "Discours  de  la  desfaicte  de  l'armee  du  due  de  Savoye,  faicte  par  le  sei- 
gneur Les-diguieres  en  la  plaine  de  Pontcharra,  pres  le  chasteau  de  Bayard, 
vallee  de  Graisivodan,  le  18  [19]  jour  du  mois  de  Septembre  1591,"  in  Memoires 
de  la  Ligue,  iv.  666-671.  Recueil  des  choses  inemorables,  742.  De  Thou,  viii. 
(book  102)  15-25. 


278  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.  Ch.  XII. 

astonished  magistrate  a  formal  sentence,  which  condemned  him 
to  death  as  guilty  of  treason  against  God  and  man.  Inquiries 
as  to  his  judges,  and  the  evidence  whereon  the  writ  was  based, 
elicited  sneers  and  expressions  of  amusement  at  Brisson's  sim- 
plicity. The  bystanders  vouchsafed  him  only  the  advice  that 
he  should  at  once  prepare  to  die,  for  his  time  was  short.  In- 
deed, scarcely  had  the  unfortunate  man  the  opportunity  to 
make  his  confession  to  a  priest,  before  he  was  hanged  upon  a 
ladder  which  served  him  in  lieu  of  gallows.  Two  other  judges, 
Larcher  and  Tardif — the  former  a  councillor  of  parliament,  the 
latter  a  councillor  in  the  chatelet — shared  Brisson's  fate.  Next 
day  the  three  corpses  were  suspended  in  front  of  the  Hotel  de 
Yille,  upon  the  fatal  Place  de  Greve,  with  appropriate  labels 
descriptive  of  their  alleged  crimes,  and  were  exposed  to  the 
jeers  and  insults  of  the  populace.1 

Having  by  this  exploit,  as  they  fancied,  humbled  beyond 
measure  both  parliament  and  that  portion  of  the  League  which 
Disloyalty  of  still  "had  the  lilies  of  France  engraven  on  their 
the  "seize.1  heartS)"  the  Sixteen  turned  to  Spain  with  more  con- 
fidence than  ever  that  their  treasonable  purposes  might  be 
carried  into  effect.  On  the  twentieth  of  November,  1591, 
five  days  after  the  murder  of  President  Brisson,  they  signed 
and  despatched,  by  the  hands  of  Father  Matthieu,  a  joint  let- 
ter addressed  to  Philip  the  Second.  The  Jesuit  had  enjoyed 
rare  experience  in  delicate  matters  of  the  kind  ;  happily  fur  the 
world,  however,  he  was  detected  by  the  governor  of  Bourbon- 


J  "Discours  sur  la  mort  de  Monsieur  le  president  Brisson,  ensemble  lea  ar- 
rests donnez  a  l'encontre  des  assassinateurs,  Paris,  1595."  Reprinted  in  Cim- 
ber  et  Danjou,  Archives  curieuses,  xiii.  319-331.  The  learned  Etienn- 
quier  has  devoted  two  long  letters  (CEuvres,  edit.  Feugere,  ii.  340-366),  to  the 
conspiracy  against  Brisson  and  the  execution.  Both  papers  are  full  of  inter- 
esting details,  and  will  repay  a  careful  perusal.  It  was  regarded  as  in  some 
degree  a  just  retribution  that  the  first  president,  who  had  been  too  timid  or 
too  ambitious  to  espouse  the  side  of  the  king,  should  have  been  described,  in 
great  capitals,  as  <kBarnabe  Brisson,  chief  of  the  heretics  and  politiques. " 
One  of  his  companions  was  stigmatized  as  "favorer  of  the  heretics.'-  the  other 
as  "an  enemy  of  the  holy  League  and  the  Catholic  princes."  See,  also,  De 
Thou,  viii.  (book  102)  36-41  ;  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  743,  744  ;  Les- 
toile,  ii.  67,  68,  etc. 


1591.  HENRY'S  DIFFICULT  POSITION.  279 

nais,  while  passing  through  that  province,  and  his  precious  docu- 
ment fell  under  other  eyes  than  those  for  which  it  was  intended. 
Never  had  there  heen  such  a  revelation  of  the  baseness  of  the 
ignoble  junto  which  had  usurped  the  reins  at  Paris  and  now 
undertook  to  dispose  of  the  fortunes  of  the  whole  realm. 

The  "  Sixteen  "  began  with  profuse  expressions  of  the  obli- 
gations incurred  by  France  toward  Philip — obligations  so  great 
Their  letter  tuat  to  rePay  them  would  be  impossible,  so  intimate 
s^^Novlin. tnat  tne}' mllst  regai'd  any  Frenchman  who  did  not 
ber  20, 1591.  owu  himse]f  to  be  f or  all  time  the  most  obliged  ser- 
vant of  the  Catholic  king,  and  that  king's  posterity,  as  an  en- 
emy of  God,  of  religion,  of  the  quiet  and  public  peace  of  the 
state,  nay,  of  all  Christendom.  Next,  they  deplored  the  gen- 
eral affliction  of  the  house  of  God,  the  pollution  of  churches, 
the  discontinuance  of  the  mass,  the  persecution  of  the  clergy,  the 
loss  of  souls  by  reason  of  heresy,  the  city,  as  it  were,  deserted, 
the  fair  colleges  empty,  the  university  forsaken.  Only  the  Fac- 
ulty of  Theology  continued  to  be  well  attended,  that  school 
which,  both  in  Paris  and  throughout  the  kingdom,  had,  by  its 
divine  admonitions  and  exhortations,  drawn  closer  the  bonds  of 
the  holy  union  between  the  Catholic  princes,  lords,  and  people.1 
They  dwelt  in  particular  upon  the  wretchedness  to  which  Paris 
was  reduced,  and  to  which  it  must  succumb  unless  relieved 
by  his  majesty  of  Spain.  Over  against  great  discouragements 
the  writers  set  two  signal  blessings,  vouchsafed  by  Heaven, 
of  which  the  glad  tidings  had  come  to  refresh  their  drooping 
spirits.  The  first  was  the  new  zeal  displayed  by  Philip  himself, 
and  by  him  enkindled  in  the  Roman  pontiff ;  the  second  was 
the  deliverance  from  captivity,  in  which  he  had  languished  ever 
since  the  tragedy  of  Blois,  "  of  that  young  prince  of  Guise,  son 
of  the  first  martyr  of  his  quality,  in  this  kingdom,  since  these 
present  persecutions  excited  against  the  Church."  From  Guise 
they  affirmed  that,  in  view  of  his  long  and  unmerited  sufferings 


1  Among  the  ills  enumerated  is  an  allusion  to  the  misdeeds  of  Henry  the 
Fourth,  which  may  be  quoted  as  a  sample  of  the  amenities  of  the  original. 
The  "  Sixteen  "  speak  of  '*  les  sainctes  vierges  a  Dieu  sacrees,  corrompues  et 
violees  par  ce  puant  bouc  et  les  siens." 


280      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XII. 

and  his  persecuted  innocence,  they  entertained  the  highest  ex- 
pectations that  God  would  bless  his  efforts  to  the  consumma- 
tion of  His  work  in  the  good  cause  "  under  the  shadow,  favor, 
and  aid  of  his  Catholic  majesty."  Both  of  these  items  of  good 
news  had  come  in  August,  a  month  which,  for  a  number  of 
years  past,  they  declared,  God  had,  according  to  the  meaning  of 
the  designation,  rendered  propitious  to  the  cause  of  religion. 
It  was  in  August,  1572,  that  Admiral  Chatillon's  conspiracies- 
being  discovered,  "  he  was  ignominiously  treated  according  to 
his  demerits,  and  this  realm  and  the  states  of  your  Catholic 
majesty  in  Belgian  Gaul  and  Lower  Germany  were  delivered 
from  the  invasion  which  the  heretics  contemplated  making." 
It  was  in  the  same  month,  two  years  since,  that  besieged  Paris 
was  miraculously  delivered  by  the  strange  and  unlooked-for 
death  of  him  who  had  been  recognized  asking,  but,  for  his  acts 
of  perfidy  toward  God  and  man,  had  been  rejected.  And  it 
was  again  in  August,  1590,  that  the  capital  was  rescued  from 
the  peril  in  which  it  stood,  from  traitors  within  and  enemies 
without,  by  the  opportune  arrival  of  the  Duke  of  Parma  at  a 
time  when  a  delay  of  but  three  or  four  days  more  would  have 
compelled  surrender  on  the  most  miserable  terms. 

But  Paris  was  poor  and  exhausted.  She  had  spent  five  mill- 
ion crowns  of  gold  and  over.  For  more  than  three  years  she 
had  gathered  nothing  from  her  usual  sources  of  income,  from 
her  lands  and  inheritances;  her  officers  had  received  no  waj 
and  her  merchants  had  had  no  trade.  For  upward  of  a  year 
and  a  half  she  had  been  beset  on  all  sides  by  an  enemy  who 
wratched  her  so  closely  that  nothing  could  come  in  save  by  acci- 
dent or  force  of  arms,  an  enemy  who  would  have  ventured 
upon  more  decided  measures  but  for  the  garrison  which  the 
King  of  Spain  had  been  pleased  to  give  to  Paris.  One  thing. 
however,  remained  to  be  secured.  France  must  have  a  mon- 
arch crowned  with  the  accustomed  rites,  and  for  this  monarch 
she  looked  to  Philip's  help.  Indeed,  according  to  the  Sixteen, 
France  wanted  no  other  person  than  the  occupant  of  the  Es- 
corial  to  be  her  master.  "We  can  certainly  assure  your  Cath- 
olic Majesty,"  say  they,  "that  it  is  the  prayer  and  desire  of 
all  the  Catholics  to  see  your  Catholic  Majesty  hold  the  seep 


1591.  HENRY'S   DIFFICULT  POSITION.  281 

tre  of  this  crown  and  reign  over  us — accordingly  we  cast  our- 
selves very  gladly  into  your  arms,  as  into  those  of  our  father 
— or  else  that  you  should  here  establish  some  one  of  your 
posterity.  If  it  be  more  agreeable  to  you  to  give  us  another 
than  yourself,  let  your  majesty  choose  a  son-in-law  whom  we 
shall  receive  as  king  and  obey  with  all  our  best  affections, 
with  all  the  devotion  and  obedience  a  good  and  faithful  people 
can  render.  For  thus  much  do  we  hope  from  the  blessing  of 
God  upon  this  marriage,  that  what  we  once  received  from  that 
great  and  very  Christian  princess,  Blanche  of  Castile,  mother 
of  our  Christian  and  religious  king  Saint  Louis,  we  shall  re- 
ceive— nay,  the  double  of  it — from  that  great  and  virtuous 
princess,  daughter  of  your  Catholic  Majesty,  who  for  her  rare 
virtues  attracts  to  her  the  eyes  of  us  all. "  l 

By  such  words  and  more  to  the  same  effect  did  the  Sixteen 
lav  the  crown  of  France,  so  far  as  their  words  and  acts  could 
lay  it,  at  the  feet  of  Philip,  and  give  him  very  clearly  to  under- 
stand that  it  would  please  them  marvellously  wrell  should  he 
condescend  to  give  both  that  crown  and  the  hand  of  the  Infanta 
to  the  young  Duke  of  Guise. 

There  was  one,  however,  who,  though  closely  connected  with 
Guise,  did  not  participate  in  these  views.  It  was  notorious  that 
the  Duke  of  Mayenne  had  no  desire  to  see  the  crown  transferred 
either  to  Philip  or  to  Philip's  son-in-law,  even  should  that  son- 
in-law  be  Guise  himself.  But  it  was  presumed  that  the  blow 
struck  at  parliament  would  terrify  him,  or,  at  the  very  least, 
Mayenne  compel  him  to  acquiesce.  Instead  of  this,  one  day  he 
president  made  his  appearance  in  the  city,  having  suddenly  left 
Soissons  and  deferred  the  junction  which  he  was  about 
to  make  with  Parma  and  his  auxiliary  forces.  Evidently  he 
deemed  it  of  more  pressing  importance  to  crush  the  sedition  in 


1  The  original  of  the  letter  of  the  "  Sixteen  "  is  found  among  the  MSS.  of  the 
National  Library  at  Paris  (Fonds  de  Bethune,  cote  9137).  It  was  first  pub- 
lished in  1830  by  M.  Paulin  Paris  in  his  Monumens  inedits  de  l'histoire  de 
France,  in  connection  with  the  Correspondence  of  Charles  IX.  and  Mandelot. 
De  Thou,  Lestoile,  and  the  authors  of  the  Satyre  Menippee,  while  referring  to 
this  important  document  and  quoting  some  of  its  most  insulting  expressions, 
were  not,  according  to  M.  Paris,  acquainted  with  the  text  itself. 


282  THE   HUGUENOTS  AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.  Ch.  XII. 

the  capital  than  even  to  defeat  the  king  himself.  In  vain  did 
the  Spanish  ambassador  intercede  for  the  culprits,  and  from 
intercessions  pass  to  open  menaces ;  the  duke,  having  placed  a 
faithful  officer  in  command  of  the  Bastile,  proceeded  to  arrest  the 
most  obnoxious* of  the  Sixteen,  and,  on  the  fourth  of  December, 
one  of  the  lower  rooms  of  the  Louvre  witnessed  the  exemplary 
punishment  of  four  men — two  of  them  members  of  the  council 
of  the  Sixteen,  and  the  other  two  as  deeply  implicated  in  their 
bloody  deeds — hanged  to  expiate  the  murder  of  President  Uri.^- 
son  and  his  companions.1  The  council  of  the  Sixteen  hence- 
forth ceased  to  be  a  power  in  the  state.  Parliament  was  able 
Fan  of  the  to  reassert  itself.  The  time  when  an  illegally  consti- 
" seize."  tuted  commission  could  demand  of  the  municipality 
of  Paris  the  institution  of  a  "  chambre  ardente  "  to  make  short 
work  of  heretics,  and  could  secure  the  right  to  designate  the 
members  of  the  bloody  tribunal,  was  passed.2  Reason  had  be- 
gun to  be  heard  in  the  councils  of  the  League. 

Meanwhile  the  king,  having  recently  obtained  important  ac- 
cessions of  strength  in  answer  to  his  appeals  to  Germany  and  to 
England,  had  resolved  to  complete  the  reduction  of  Normandy, 

1  See  Pasquier's  letters  above  referred  to,  and  De  Thou,  viii.  42-44.     Auie- 
line  and  Loucliard  were  put  to  death  on  this  occasion,  who.  just  two  week 
fore,  had  signed  their  names  to  the  joint  letter  of  the  Sixteen.      Henry  IV., 
on  hearing  that  Mayenne  had  put  out  of  the  way  four  of  the  "Seize, 
marked  that  his  cousin,  the  duke,  had  done  well,  but  ought  to  have  gone  four 
degrees  further  (i.e.,  destroyed  one-half  of  the  council).    Lestoile.  ii.  75 

also,  the  "  edict"  given  on  the  subject  by  Mayenne,  December  10,  1501,  un- 
der the  title  of  "Abolition  du  due  de  Mayenne  de  ce  qui  s'est  faict  a.  Paris.  Bur 
la  niort  ignominieuse  du  President  Brisson,  les  conseillers  Larcher  et  Tardif," 
in  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  74-77. 

2  Among  the  u  Articles  sur  lesquelz  les  Catholiques  de  Paris  desirent  leur 
estre  presentement  et  promptement  pourveu,"  presented  by  the  "  Sixteen  '  to 
the  prevot  des  marchands  and  echevins,  November  15,  1591.  the  first 

"  Quil  soict  promptement  estably  une  chambre  ardente  de  douze  personnea 
qualifiez  et  grandes,  d'ung  president  et  ung  substitut  du  procureur  general  et 
ung  greffier,  qui  soient  notoirement  de  la  Sainte  Ligue,  pour  fe  [fairej  les  pro- 
ces  aux  heretiques,  thraistres,  leurs  fauteurs  et  adherens,  et  qui  seront  noni- 
mez  par  le  conseil  des  seize  quartiers  de  ceste  ville."  To  which  the  answer 
was:  "  Accorde  que  la  nomination  sera  faicte  par  le  bureau  de  la  ville  et  de 
leur  consentement. "  Loutchitzky,  Documents  inedits  pour  servir  a  l'histoire 
de  la  Reforme  et  de  la  Ligue,  279-281. 


1591.  THE  SIEGE   OF  ROUEN.  283 

the  richest  province  of  Northern  France,  if  not  indeed  of  the  en- 
tire realm.  Rouen  having  once  been  wrested  from  the  grasp  of 
the  League,  the  entire  course  of  the  Seine  would  be  in  the  hands 
of  the  royalists,  from  Paris  to  the  broad  estuary  through  which 
Rouen  be-  the  river  empties  into  the  English  Channel.  Havre 
and  Ilonfleur,  on  either  side  of  the  entrance  of  the 
estuary,  would  not  then  be  long  in  making  their  peace  with  the 
king.  This  is  not  the  place  to  relate  in  all  its  details  the  re- 
markable siege  that  followed.  The  royal  army  was  amply  strong 
enough  for  the  undertaking.  Henry  had  received,  near  Vouzi- 
ers,  on  the  upper  Aisne,  the  fourteen  thousand  Germans  brought 
by  Turenne  ;  and  to  these  were  soon  added  six  thousand  English 
and  as  many  more  Swiss,  not  to  speak  of  four  thousand  French 
troops,  the  remains  of  old  regiments  of  foot.  The  united  force 
thus  numbered  fully  thirty  thousand  men,  chiefly  Protestants, 
who,  as  they  served  for  pay,  were  pretty  sure  not  to  desert  the 
monarch,  when  most  he  needed  their  services,  on  the  plea  offered 
by  the  gentleman  serving  at  his  own  cost,  that  long  neglected  af- 
fairs at  home  must  receive  attention.  The  royal  treasury,  too, 
was  in  a  far  better  condition  than  ever  before,  thanks  in  part  to 
the  sale  which  Henry  had  effected  of  portions  of  his  own  private 
domain  and  of  crown  property  in  Beam  and  Normandy,  in  part, 
also,  to  loans  of  money  from  abroad.1  But  unfortunately  the 
king  had  other  obstacles  to  confront  than  those  interposed  by 
the  besieged.  Marshal  Biron,  having  new  grievances  to  com- 
plain of,  thought  himself  justified  in  new  measures  to  thwart 
his  master.  Intrusted  by  Henry  with  the  task  of  beginning  the 
siege,  he  turned  his  attention  to  assaulting  the  strong  Fort  Saint 
Catharine,  which  commanded  Rouen  upon  the  east,  instead  of 
following  the  sensible  advice  of  directing  his  main  attack  against 
the  city  itself,  whose  position  was  lower  and  whose  walls  were 
in  places  very  weak.    In  vain  was  the  obstinate  veteran  remind- 


1  See  Poirson,  Regne  de  Henri  IV.,  i.  300,  301.  The  considerable  sums  lent 
by  Queen  Elizabeth  about  this  time  appear  in  the  "  Memoire  des  sommes  de 
deniers  que  la  Reyne  d'Angleterre  a  prestez  ou  desboursez  pour  le  Roy  Tres- 
chrestien,"  in  Sawyer's  Memorials  of  Affairs  of  State  (from  Sir  Ralph  Win- 
wood's  papers),  i.  29. 


284     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn.  XII. 

ed  of  the  old  military  adage,  "  Ville  prise,  chateau  rendu  ;  "  in 
vain  was  it  suggested  to  him  that  when  once  Rouen  was  taken 
the  fort  could  not  long  hold  out.  His  comrades  in  arms 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  marshal,  having  been  refused 
the  post  of  governor,  which  Henry  had  previously  promised  the 
Duke  of  Montpensier  to  confer,  when  the  place  should  be  taken. 
upon  Monsieur  de  Hallot,  had  fully  made  up  his  mind  to  do 
everything  that  was  necessary  to  prevent  the  success  of  the  army 
he  commanded.1 

The  siege  began  on  the  eleventh  of  November,  1591.  On 
the  first  day  of  the  succeeding  month  Henry  addressed  the 
citizens,  from  the  town  of  Vernon  on  the  Seine,  a  conciliatory 
letter,  assuring  them  of  his  friendly  disposition  toward  them, 
and  citing  the  treatment  received  by  all  the  cities  that  had  sub- 
mitted to  him,  in  proof  of  the  sincerity  of  his  purpose  to  pro- 
tect and  maintain  the  privileges  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
But  these  kindly  advances  were  received  with  scorn.  The  her- 
ald who  brought  the  king's  letter  was  told  to  inform  his  master 
that  God  had  not  been  so  lavish  of  His  favor  to  Henry  but  that 
Answer  of  the  He  had  reserved  a  portion  for  His  Catholic  people  ; 
Henry'Tsum0  nor  would  He  suffer  the  city  where  the  extirpation  of 
rnons.  .Qie  heretics  had  been  sworn  in  the  Edict  of  Union  to 

fall  into  the  power  of  the  heretics.     The  Rouennais  were  re- 
solved to  die  rather  than  recognize  a  heretic  as  king  of  France.2 


1  The  secretaries  of  Sully  tell  us  that  their  master  strongly  censured  Biron's 
plan  :  "  lequel  dessein  nous  vous  ouismes  grandement  blasmer,  ay  ant  tous- 
jours  eu  la  fantasie  qu'il  falloit  attaquer  la  ville  de  Rouen,  que  vous  disiez 
estre  fort  foible  en  de  certains  endroits,  et  par  consequent  fort  facile  a  pren- 
dre, au  lieu  de  s'amuser  a  attaquer  une  teste  si  estroite,"  etc.  Of  the  motive 
they  add:  "Plusieurs  vindrent  a  croire,  et  le  bruit  n'en  estoit  pas  sourd. 
que  le  vieil  Mareschal  de  Biron  mal  content  de  ce  qu'ayant  demande  le  gou- 
vernement  de  Rouen  au  Roy,  il  lui  avoit  respondu  qu'il  en  estoit  engage  de 
parole  a  Monsieur  de  Montpensier  pour  Monsieur  de  Hallot ;  il  faisoit  Urates 
choses  par  despit,  et  ne  vouloit  nullement  que  la  ville  se  prist."  Mcmoires  de 
Sully,  c.  33  (Ed.  of  1663,  i.  284). 

2  The  "  Bref  discours  des  choses  plus  memorables  advenues  en  la  ville  de 
Rouen,  durant  le  siege  mis  devant  icelle  par  Henry  de  Bourbon,  pretendu 
Roy  de  Navarre"  (Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  103-121),  contains  both  the  letter 
of  Henry  IV.  and  the  city's  answer. 


159L  THE  SIEGE   OF   ROUEN.  285 

Not  content,  however,  with  brave  words,  the  citizens,  under 
the  skilful  leadership  of  Monsieur  de  Villars,1  than  whom 
besieged  city  has  scarcely  ever  boasted  of  a  better  governor, 
applied  themselves  to  the  means  of  defence.  Not  least  curious 
among  the  incidents  of  the  time  was  a  solemn  service,  instituted 
on  Sunday,  the  eighth  of  December.  Leaving  the  magnificent 
cathedral  of  Notre  Dame  at  the  early  hour  of  seven  in  the 
morning,  the  procession  moved  successively  to  the  churches  of 
St.  Ouen,  Notre  Dame  de  Bonnes  Nouvelles  and  the  Capuchins, 
Litanies  and  wnere  *n  every  case  the  host  was  exposed  upon  the 
processions.  gran(j  altar  amid  all  the  splendors  which  ecclesiasti- 
cal ingenuity  could  devise.  It  would  be  tiresome  to  enumerate 
all  the  dignitaries  of  church  and  state,  from  the  governor  down, 
that  were  present.  The  inclement  season  of  the  year  did  not 
prevent  three  hundred  merchants  of  the  city,  all  of  them  walk- 
ing: with  bare  feet  under  the  standard  of  the  crucifix,  from 
heading  the  pompous  array.  Every  reliquary  of  which  Rouen 
could  boast  was  there,  from  that  of  St.  Romain  to  that  which 
contained  some  fragments  of  the  bones  of  the  eleven  thousand 
virgins.  It  was  in  the  stately  church  of  St.  Ouen  that  the 
chief  solemnities  were  observed.  There  the  Bishop  of  Bayeux 
said  mass,  and  there  Monsieur  Jean  d'Andre,  a  doctor  of  theol- 
ogy and  penitentiary  of  Rouen,  delivered  the  sermon,  from  a 
scriptural  text  never  before,  it  may  be  believed,  applied  in  such 
a  manner.  li  Nolitejugum  ducere  cum  infidelibus  " — "  Be  not 
unequally  yoked  together  with  unbelievers  " — according  to  the 
new  exegesis  here  propounded,  signified  that  the  Roman  Cath- 
olics should  not  and  could  not  receive  a  heretic  to  be  king  of 
France,  and  that  death  endured  in  so  good  a  cause  as  that  in 
which  Rouen  was  engaged  was  holy  and  enjoined  of  God.  The 
discourse  closed  with  an  appeal  to  all  who  were  present  to  raise 
their  hands  and  swear  to  prefer  the  loss  of  life  to  a  recognition 
of  Henry  of  Bourbon,  and  with  an  injunction  that  every  one 
should  fast  on  bread  and  water  during  Wednesday,  Friday,  and 


1  Andre  de  Villars-Brancas,  governor  of  Havre  de  Grace,  who  had  been 
■brought  in  the  capacity  of  lieutenant  to  supply  the  inexperience  of  Duke 
Henry  d'Aiguillon,  the  young  son  of  the  Duke  of  Mayenne. 


2S6      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XII. 

Saturday  of  the  current  week,  with  a  view  to  the  reception,  on 
the  ensuing  Lord's  day,  of  "  the  holy  Sacrament  of  the  altar — 
true  and  assured  weapon  against  the  heretics."  ' 

Despite,  however,  all  the  resolution  of  the  citizens  and  all 
the  ability  of  Yillars,  despite  processions  and  desperate  sorties, 
Rouen  must  fall  if  not  speedily  relieved.  Again  the 
Parma  in-  Duke  of  Parma  was  urged  to  make  no  delay  in  com- 
ing to  the  relief  of  the  orthodox  of  France.  Already 
Philip  had  a  foothold  in  Brittany,  and  Spanish  war  vessels 
swept  the  shores  of  France,  sailed  to  and  fro  in  the  estuary  of 
the  Seine,  and  kept  the  communication  open  between  the  Nor- 
man capital  and  the  sea.  Now  a  new  concession  was  demanded 
before  Alexander  Farnese  would  enter  France,  and  Mayenne 
was  compelled  reluctantly  to  suffer  a  Spanish  garrison  to  be 
placed  in  the  town  of  La  Fere,  on  the  upper  Oise,  and  near  the 
Flemish  borders. 

At  the  approach  of  the  Duke  of  Parma  the  king  advanced 
to  meet  him  with  his  mounted  gentlemen  and  a  few  arqnebnsiers, 
leaving  the  conduct  of  the  siege  during  his  absence 
wounded  to  Marshal  Biron.  But  his  first  encounter  with  the 
invader,  a  little  beyond  Aumale,  on  the  borders  of 
Normandy  and  Picardy,  was  not  a  success;  his  troops  were 
driven  back  in  considerable  disorder,  and  Henry  himself  re- 
ceived a  slight  wound  in  the  loins  from  a  half -spent  ball.  Too 
weak  in  men  to  dispute  the  duke's  advance,  the  king  was  com- 
pelled to  permit  the  capture  of  Xeufchatel  in  Bray,  and  could 
only  hang  on  the  sides  of  the  Spaniards,  ready  to  take  advan- 
tage of  every  mistake  committed  by  his  antagonist."  Parma 
was  consequently  forced  to  make  short  marches,  and  every  even- 
ing to  throw  up  intrenchments  for  the  purpose  of  protecting 
himself  from  surprises  at  the  hands  of  a  vigilant  and  active  foe. 


1  klBref  discours"  in  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue.  v.  112,  113. 

2  It  was  in  one  of  the  minor  engagements  of  this  time  that  poor  Chicot,  the 
well-known  clown  of  the  king,  was  fortunate  enough,  though  himself  mortally 
wounded,  to  take  prisoner  the  Count  of  Chaligny,  a  nobleman  of  the  princely 
house  of  Lorraine,  and  actually  in  command  as  a  general  officer  of  one  of  the 
divisions  of  the  present  expedition.  Tt  is  almost  needless  to  say  that  the  count 
was  overwhelmed  with  chagrin  at  being  captured  by  such  an  antagonist. 


159'2.  THE  SIEGE   OF   ROUEN.  2b 7 

The  king's  repulse  at  Aumale  and  his  wound  were  the  least 
of  his  causes  for  annoyance.  One  day,  when  sitting  at  the 
Protestant  preaching  service  in  his  camp,  he  received  a  mes- 
senger from  Rouen  who  brought  most  unwelcome  tidings.  Vil- 
lars  had  watched  his  opportunity,  and,  on  the  morning  of  the 
twenty-sixth  of  February,  had  made  a  sortie  not  less 

A    pnr»(*GSSf 111  * 

sortie  from  determined  than  unexpected.  Pushing  on  to  the  ene- 
my's position  at  Darnetal,  and  meeting  little  resist- 
ance, he  had  made  himself  master  of  Biron's  cannon,  carrying 
off  some  and  spiking  the  rest ;  had  turned  the  trenches,  and  had 
slaughtered  the  besiegers  when,  tardily  and  just  awaking  from 
sleep,  they  hurried  to  defend  them.  Not  to  speak  of  the  dam- 
age to  the  works,  the  butchery  of  three  or  four  hundred  faith- 
ful soldiers,  some  of  them  men  of  bravery  and  eminence,  was 
enough  to  discourage  a  less  sanguine  monarch  than  Henry. 
But  the  actual  loss  was  not  the  most  depressing  circumstance. 
Again  Marshal  Biron  had  been  culpably,  inexcusably  negligent, 
and  such  was  the  state  of  affairs,  civil  and  political,  that  the 
king  dared  not  take  him  to  task.     It  was,  indeed,  more  than 

suspected  that,  if  the  marshal   had  not  purposely  in- 
Lukewarm-        .  r_    _  \  .  .  r     r       J 
ness  of  Biron  vited  the  murderous  attack,  with  the  view  or  further 

and  others.  .  ,   .        , .  .  ,  ,       , 

avenging  his  disappointment  upon  the  monarch,  he 
was,  at  any  rate,  not  at  all  sorry  that  fresh  disasters  should 
befall  the  king  who  persisted  in  his  heresy.  And  Biron 
had  many  counterparts  among  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Hen- 
ry's suite.  The  king  might  make  light  of  the  reverse  he  had 
met  with,  and  observe  that  the  gain  of  another  battle  would 
make  everything  right ;  but  all  his  fine  speeches,  as  Sully  in- 
forms us,  could  not  restore  the  equanimity  of  the  "  malignants," 
nor  prevent  them  from  manifesting,  by  their  sorrowful  faces,  by 
their  melancholy  looks,  by  shrugging  their  shoulders,  by  roll- 
ing their  eyes  upward  toward  heaven,  by  low  whispers  in  the 
ear,  and  by  predictions  of  all  kinds  of  ill-success  so  long  as  the 
king  should  continue  to  be  a  Huguenot,  the  annoyance  and  dis- 
pleasure with  which  they  endured  the  rule  of  a  king  of  the 
Protestant  religion,  and  their  hatred  of  its  professors.  This 
hatred,  indeed,  exhibited  itself,  in  the  army  before  Rouen,  in  a 
very  tangible  form.     The  victims  of  the  late  sortie  had  been 


288      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XII. 

buried  in  ditches  hastily  dug  in  the  nearest  church-yards,  and 
among  the  ten  or  twelve  corpses  consigned  to  each  grave  no  at- 
tempt had  been  made  to  discriminate  between  orthodox  and 
heretic.  Such  impartiality  did  not  suit  the  prejudices  of  the 
more  bigoted.  They  began  to  demand  that  the  ground  should 
be  reopened,  and  the  bodies  of  those  whose  presence  desecrated 
the  holy  spot  should  be  cast  to  the  wolves  and  the  crows.  What 
with  the  difficulty  of  ascertaining  the  religious  sentiments  of 
each  of  the  deceased  and  the  indignation  and  threats  of  the 
Huguenots,  who  constituted  two-thirds  of  the  army,  the  atro- 
cious proposal  was  not  carried  into  execution.  But  like  many 
other  incidents  trifling  in  appearance,  but  deeply  significant  of 
the  implacable  rancor  of  religious  partisanship,  it  was  another 
proof  to  a  king  already  weak  of  purpose  that  he  could  never  be 
secure  of  his  crown  until  he  should  have  renounced  his  mothers 
faith.1 

Meantime,  Villars  at  Rouen  and  Mayenne  in  the  field  were 
even  more  apprehensive  that  they  might  be  too  much  indebted 
to  the  Duke  of  Parma  for  deliverance  than  afraid  of  the  arms 
of  Henry.  The  former  hastily  sent  word  to  the 
dispensed  Spaniard  that  Rouen  could  now  take  care  of  itself  ; 
while  Mayenne,  in  reply  to  the  duke's  very  natural 
suggestion  that  the  best  thing  to  be  done  was  certainly  to 
press  forward  and  at  once  make  an  end  of  all  trouble  by 
breaking  up  Biron's  operations,  politely  informed  Parma  that 
he  had  come  so  far  only  to  bring  succor  to  the  besieged. 
Now  that  fortune  had  effected  this  without  the  intervention  of 
either  the  duke  or  of  himself,  his  duty  was  to  lead  the  army 
back  to  a  place  of  safety.  "  Were  I  a  private  soldier,"  said  he, 
"I  should  be  happy  to  follow  you  anywhere  ;  but,  as  Lieuten- 
ant General  of  the  Crown  of  France,  I  cannot  consent  to  make 
any  rash  and  useless  ventures."  3 

Nothing  remained  for  Parma  to  do  but  to  yield  to  the  bad 
counsels  of  the  leaders  who  had  been  so  earnest  in  soliciting 


'Memoires  de  Sully,  chap.  35  (vol.  i.  308-310).     M.  Poirson  takes  the  most 
unfavorable  view  of  Marshal  Biron's  action  at  Rouen. 
2  De  Thou,  viii.  61. 


1592.  THE  SIEGE   OF   ROUEN.  289 

his  presence,  and  who  now  made  it  a  point  of  pride  to  oppose 
him  at  every  point.  But  scarcely  had  he  crossed  the  river 
Somme,  on  his  way  hack  to  the  Netherlands,  before  Villars  be- 
gan to  repent  his  self-sufficiency.  The  king  had  taken  matters 
into  his  own  hands,  for  Marshal  Biron  was  still  disabled  in  con- 
sequence of  a  wound  received  on  the  occasion  of  the  disaster 
of  the  great  sortie.  Rouen  was  hard  pressed,  and  the  citizens, 
worn  out  by  their  incessant  labors  and  prostrated  by  diseases 
incident  to  their  situation,  were  driven  to  the  verge  of  despair. 
Again  Villars  had  unwilling  recourse  to  Farnese,  warning  him 
that,  unless  relieved  before  the  twentieth  of  April,  he  w^ould 
have  to  capitulate  with  the  king.  His  appeal  was  more  prompt- 
ly heard  than  it  deserved  to  be.  By  one  of  those  marvel- 
lous efforts  of  which  Parma  was  capable,  within  six  days,  he 
traversed  the  space  which  Henry  thought,  from  his 

He  is  again  *■  " 

begged  to  own  experience,  could  hardly  be  accomplished  in  less 
than  twenty.  In  fact,  the  king  was  not  only  surprised, 
but  in  some  peril ;  for  in  his  fancied  security  he  had  given  a 
brief  leave  of  absence  to  his  nobles,  the  infantry  alone  being 
deemed  essential  to  the  prosecution  of  the  siege.  Happily  he 
had  taken  the  precaution  to  provide  for  summoning  the  absen- 
tees in  an  emergency,  and  not  many  days  elapsed  before  he  again 
found  himself  formidable,  with  three  thousand  French  horse, 
an  equal  number  of  German  reiters,  and  twelve  thousand  foot. 
But  he  was  not  able  to  maintain  the  siege  of  Rouen,  nor  to  pre- 
vent the  fruit  of  the  labors  of  four  or  five  months  from  being 
The  siege  snatched  from  his  hands.  It  was,  indeed,  only  the 
abandoned,  jealousy  entertained  by  Mayenne  of  any  plan  pro- 
posed by  Parma  which  shielded  Henry  from  assault  until  the 
arrival  of  his  re-enforcements.  The  Frenchman  insisted  that 
the  king  would  easily  be  able  to  effect  a  retreat  across  the  Seine, 
and  that  it  was  far  better  to  turn  the  army's  attention  to  the 
Dutch  cruisers  who  had  come  to  dispute  with  the  Spanish  vessels 
the  command  of  the  outlet  to  the  sea.  He  recommended  an  at- 
tack upon  Caudebec,  a  fortified  place  lying  on  the  second  fold  of 
the  sinuous  river  below  Rouen,  and  again  the  Spaniard  was  con- 
strained to  yield  to  the  superior  authority  of  the  "  Lieutenant 
General  of  the  Crown."  Nor  was  this  all.  After  the  fall  of 
Vol.  II. —19 


290      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Co.  XIL 

Caudebec,  Parma,  having  been  dangerously  wounded  in  the  arm 
while  approaching  too  near  the  works,  was  not  only  compelled 
to  take  to  his  bed,  but  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  seeing  his 
wise  counsels  a  third  time  overruled  by  the  persistent  opposition 
of  the  Lorraine  prince.  Alarmed  at  the  rapid  growth  of  Hen- 
ry's army,  the  duke  was  in  favor  of  abandoning  the  newly  ac- 
quired prize,  and  counselled  a  retreat  westward  to  Lillebonne, 
where  he  might  draw  an  abundance  of  provisions  for  his  troops 
from  friendly  Havre,  in  his  rear.  But  Mayenne  insisted  upon 
retaining  a  position  which  might,  he  said,  enable  him  to  relieve 
Ilouen  from  a  renewal  of  the  trial  to  which  that  city  had  recent- 
ly been  subjected.  How  injudicious  the  latter  plan  was  soon 
appeared,  when  the  army  of  the  League  found  itself  confronted 
by  a  force  larger  than  its  own,  and  when,  in  a  district  desolated 
by  war,  the  necessaries  of  life,  even  to  water  itself,  became 
scarce  and  dear.  To  the  king's  eager  attempt  to  bring  on  a 
general  engagement,  the  enemy's  generals,  now  at  last  united  in 
counsel  by  the  common  danger  that  menaced  their  destruction, 
gave  no  heed,  but  gradually  shifted  the  camp  fromYvetot,  once 
famous  for  its  claim  to  have  been  an  independent  kingdom,  to 
the  banks  of  the  Seine.1  Retreat  indeed  seemed  to  be  cut  off. 
Not  a  bridge  spanned  the  river  at  any  point  below  Rouen.  But 
for  nothing  was  Farnese  more  remarkable  than  for  the  fertility 
Masterbrre-  of  his  mind  in  devices  to  elude  an  adversary  and  to 
Duke°ofthe  extricate  himself  from  desperate  straits.  Having  se- 
parma.  cretly  ordered   the  construction   of  pontoons  in  the 

Norman  capital,  he  directed  them  to  drop  down  the  stream  to 
the  neighborhood  of  Caudebec.    With  beams  already  prepared,  a 


1  De  Thou  (viii.  68,  69)  seriously  discusses  the  merits  of  the  story  of  the 
origin  of  the  "royaume  d'Yvetot."  but,  while  inclined  to  concede  its  sub- 
stantial truth,  sees  difficulties  hard  to  be  overcome  in  the  statement  that  Goal- 
tier,  lord  of  Yvetot,  was  on  his  way  home  from  a  crusade  against  the  Saracens, 
when  sacrilegiously  slain  in  a  chapel  at  Soissons,  on  Good  Friday,  by  King 
Clothaire.  As  this  was  about  534  A.D. ,  or  between  thirty  and  forty  years  be- 
fore the  birth  of  Mohammed,  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  historian's  perplex- 
ities are  well  founded.  Clothaire  is  said  to  have  been  threatened  with  excom- 
munication by  Pope  Agapetus,  unless  he  should  make  satisfaction  to  the  widow 
and  children  of  the  murdered  nobleman.  This  he  did  by  giving  them  the 
sovereignty  of  the  fief  which  Gualtier  had  previously  held  of  him. 


1592.  THE  SIEGE  OF  ROUEN.  291 

floating  bridge  was  quickly  made,  and  almost  before  Henry  sus- 
pected his  intention,  a  great  part  of  the  Spanish  army  and  of  its 
French  allies  was  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine.  By  the  skilful 
management  of  Parma's  son,  young  Panuccio,  the  rest  was  safe- 
ly brought  across,  and  the  French  royalists  had  the  mortification 
of  seeing  the  troops  which,  but  a  day  before,  they  had  supposed 
to  be  hemmed  in  by  a  wide  expanse  of  water,  making  their  way 
without  hinderance  toward  the  friendly  refuge  of  Paris.  The 
brilliancy  of  Parma's  movement  was  equalled  only  by  the  blun- 
der of  his  opponents,  who,  on  the  announcement  of  his  escape, 
neglected  even  to  send  forward  a  portion  of  their  well-appointed 
cavalry  to  the  nearest  bridge  in  their  possession,  the  Pont  de 
TArche,  to  harass,  if  not  cut  off,  the  retreat  of  Parma.1 

The  fault,  however,  lay  not  with  Henry,  but  with  his  treach- 
erous council,  and  particularly  with  Marshal  Biron,  author  of  so 
many  disasters  and  disappointments.    Only  a  few  days 

Disloyalty  of  J  .  rr.  J  J. 

the  Roman      betore,  this  doughty  warrior  gave  a  iresh  proor  or  his 

Catholics  of  '  Y\       •  ^    i  ^r  n 

the  king's  half-heartedness.  During  not  Jess  than  live  engage- 
ments between  the  twenty-eighth  of  April  and  the 
tenth  of  May,  the  combined  forces  of  Parma  and  Mayenne  had 
been  roughly  handled  ;  and,  during  their  retreat  from  Yvetot  to 
Pancon,  near  Caudebec,  only  a  little  more  vigor  on  the  part  of 
the  marshal  would  have  turned  their  flight  into  a  rout.  It  was 
at  this  juncture  that  the  younger  Biron  applied  to  his  father  for 


1  De  Thou  has  given  a  good  description  of  the  siege  of  Rouen,  and  of  the 
second  campaign  of  Parma  in  France,  in  the  102d  and  103d  hooks  of  his  ad- 
mirable history  (viii.  46-73).  See,  also,  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  257,  etc. ;  Re- 
cueil  des  choses  memorables,  743-748  ;  "  Bref  discours  des  chosesplus  niemora- 
hles  advenues  en  la  ville  de  Rouen,"  in  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  103-121, 
already  referred  to  ;  "  Bref  discours  de  l'heureuse  victoire  qu'il  a  pleu  a  Dieu 
envoyer  au  Roy  contre  la  Ligue,  et  ses  principaux  chefs,  es  mois  d  Avril  et  de 
May,  1592,"  reprinted  in  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  155-157  ;  "  Avis  du  camp 
de  Fescamp,  le  iii  May,  1592,"  ibid.,  v.  157.  The  last  two  documents,  com- 
posed at  the  time  by  loyalists,  must  be  read  with  caution.  The  "  Bref  discours  " 
makes  the  loss  of  Parma  during  his  campaign  to  have  amounted  to  between 
six  and  seven  thousand  men.  The  "  Avis  "  was  written  at  a  time  when  it  was 
confidently  believed  that  the  enemy's  forces  were  so  shut  in  that  their  destruc- 
tion or  dispersion  was  inevitable.  Henry's  dismissal  of  his  nobles  and  others 
is  here  represented  as  a  feint  to  entice  the  enemy. 


292      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XIL 

five  hundred  horse,  a  number  quite  sufficient  to  accomplish  the 
end  proposed.  But  the  marshal  gruffly  denied  the  request. 
To  have  granted  it  might  be  to  bring  the  war  to  a  close,  and, 
with  the  war,  the  occupation  and  importance  of  military  men. 
"  What,  knave,"  said  he,  "  do  you  wish,  then,  to  send  us  to  home 
to  plant  cabbages  at  Biron  ? "  '  The  young  man  went  away 
muttering,  it  is  said,  that,  were  he  king,  he  would  have  the 
marshal's  head  cut  off.2  Now  the  same  disloyal  servant  of 
the  French  crown  used  his  predominant  influence  in  the  royal 
council  to  check  Henry's  impatience  and  cover  Parma's  retreat. 
And  he  was  not  alone.  In  assigning  the  causes  of  the  failure 
of  the  royalists,  Sully  puts  Biron's  selfishness  only  in  the  second 
place,  and  mentions  as  first  of  all,  and  principal,  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  most  zealous  among  the  prominent  Roman  Catholic 
noblemen.  Again  the  fear  that  Henry  might  triumph  over  his 
enemies  and  establish  himself  firmly  upon  the  throne  before 
the  fulfilment  of  his  promise  to  be  "  instructed,"  and  the  insu- 
perable aversion  to  the  sight  of  a  Huguenot  seated  upon  the 
throne  of  France,  postponed  the  hope  of  peace  already  long 
deferred.  Again  the  disloyal  treasurer  found  it  convenient  to 
have  no  funds  at  hand  wherewith  to  pay  Swiss  and  German 
mercenaries,  who  chose  this  very  opportunity  to  protest  that 
they  would  not  take  a  single  step  before  their  wages  should  be 
forthcoming.3 


1  "  Quoy  done,  maraut,  nous  veux-tu  envoyer  planter  des  choux  a  Biron  ?  " 
Perefixe,  Histoire  de  Henry  le  Grand,  160. 

2  "  On  disoit,  et  mesme  son  propre  fils  le  luy  reprocha,  que  s'il  eust  alors 
pousse  vivement,  il  eust  aisement  deffait  toute  l'armee,  mais  qu'il  arresta  son 
toonheur,  parce  qu'il  craignit  qu'un  si  grand  coup  ne  mist  fin  a  la  guerre  et  a 
son  employ."  Mezeray,  Abrege  chron.,  vi.  73.  "lis  ajoutent  que  si  le  man  - 
dial  de  Biron  n'eut  point  arrete  l'infanterie  du  roy,  qui  deja  avoit  defait  deux 
regimens  des  ennemis,  la  victoire  auroit  etc*  entiere."  Lestoile,  ii.  87.  See 
Poirson,  i.  315. 

3  "  Le  pire  conseil  fut  suivy  pour  quatre  causes  et  raisons,  dont  la  premiere 
et  principale  provient  des  plus  zelez  et  qualifiez  Seigneurs  Catholiques,  desquels 
vous  S9avez  bien  les  noms  sans  que  nous  les  disions,  car  il  y  en  avoit  de  vos 
plus  proches  et  de  vos  intimes  amis.  ...  La  quatriesme,  que  ceux  des 
Finances,  pour  reduire  les  choses  ou  ils  desiroient,  firent  manquer  l'argent  que 
Ton  avoit  promis  aux  Suisses  et  Reistres,"  etc.  Memoires  de  Sully,  chap.  35 
(Ed.  of  1663,  i.  320,  321). 


1592.  THE  SIEGE   OF  ROUEN.  293 

The  bridge  of  Saint  Cloud  had  been  broken  down  by  the 
Leaguers  of  Paris.  As  the  inhabitants  of  the  capital  had  no 
inclination  to  admit  their  Spanish  allies  into  the  city  by  the 
Pont  Notre  Dame,  a  bridge  of  boats  was  hastily  constructed  for 
their  accommodation.  Having  remained  in  the  vicinity  of  Paris 
long  enough  to  receive  the  congratulations  of  Madame  de  Mont- 
pensier  and  her  coterie,  Parma  proceeded  to  Chateau-Thierry, 
and  thence,  after  giving  some  rest  to  his  exhausted  army,  to  the 
Death  of  the  Netherlands.  It  was  the  last  time  that  able  general 
Duj£eofParma.ever  get  £Qot  jn  prance     Qn  ^ie  second  of  December, 

worn  by  fatigue,  prostrated  by  illness,  and  suffering  from  his 
recent  wound,  he  died  at  the  city  of  Arras,  when  about  to 
undertake  a  third  invasion  of  France  in  the  interests  of  the 
League.1  He  was  preceded  to  the  grave  by  Marshal  Biron, 
whose  head  was  carried  away  by  a  cannon-ball  as  he  was  impru- 
dently inspecting  the  fortifications  of  Epernay,  recently  capt- 
ured by  Mayenne,  but  soon  after  retaken  by  the  king.2  It  may 
be  questioned  whether  Henry  gained  more  by  the  death  of  his 
gallant  enemy  in  arms  than  by  the  removal  of  his  own  general, 
whose  great  military  abilities  had  so  often  been  exerted  to  re- 
strain the  king's  victorious  arms  and  to  render  fruitless  his  most 
strenuous  efforts. 


1  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  201 ;  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  758  ;  De 
Thou,  viii.  131. 

2  De  Thou,  viii.  74,  75. 


294  THE  HUGUENOTS   AND  HENRY  OF  NAVAKKE.      Cn.  XIIL 


CHAPTEK   XIIL 

THE   ABJURATION. 

The  siege  of  Rouen  was  not  the  only  event  of  the  year  from 
which  Henry  and  the  Huguenots,  who  had  so  faithfully  clung  to 
various  fort-  n^s  f°rtunes,  derived  little  satisfaction.  Three  years 
uncsof  war.  j^  pasSed  since  the  assassination  of  the  last  of  the 
Valois,  yet  his  successor  was  even  now  engaged  in  a  conflict 
with  his  enemies,  of  which  the  issue  was  still  doubtful ;  three 
years  had  passed  since  a  Huguenot  had  ascended  the  throne, 
yet  were  his  fellow-believers  no  nearer  the  realization  of  the 
dream  of  complete  religious  liberty  which  had  sustained  their 
courage  through  an  entire  generation  of  struggles,  massacre-. 
and  pitiless  warfare.  In  scarcely  a  year  of  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century  had  the  general  results  of  their  military  opera- 
tions been  more  indecisive,  even  when  they  fought  under  the 
banners  of  noblemen  of  inferior  degree,  than  in  151)2,  when 
they  possessed  the  signal  advantage  of  having  royalty  upon 
their  side.  True,  in  the  northeast  of  the  kingdom,  bo 
attended  the  arms  of  Henri  de  la  Tour  d'Auvergne,  Viscount 
successes  near  of  Turenne,  whom,  a  year  before,  the  king  had  re- 
sedan.  warded    for    his   devotion  and  loyalty   by    honoring 

him  with  the  hand  of  Charlotte,  sole  heiress  of  the  great  house 
of  De  la  Marck,  and  by  conferring  upon  him  the  dignity  and 
the  ample  domains  of  the  Duchy  of  Bouillon.1  But  the  gains 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Sedan  were  more  than  balanced  by  the 

1  De  Thou,  viii.  (bk.  102)  44,  45.  See,  for  the  victory  of  the  Duke  of 
Bouillon,  ibid.,  viii.  101,  102,  or  more  in  detail,  a  contemporary  document 
entitled,  "  Brief  discours  de  ce  qui  est  advenu  en  la  prise  de  la  ville  de  Dun, 
sur  le  due  de  Lorraine,  par  le  due  de  Bouillon,  au  commencement  de  deceni- 
bre  1592,"  reprinted  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  191-194. 


Vo02.  THE  ABJURATION.  295 

losses  sustained  by  the  royalists  in  the  provinces  of  Anjou  and 

Maine,  where  the  cities  of  Chateau-Gontier  and  Laval  opened 

their  gates  to  the  Duke  of  Mercoeur  and  the  League, 

Losses  in  °  .  .  _^* 

Anjou  and  after  the  defeat  experienced  by  the  Prince  or  Dom- 
bes,  eldest  son  of  the  Duke  of  Montpensier,  in  his 
retreat  from  the  fruitless  siege  of  Craon.1  So,  too,  in  the  south, 
a  conspiracy  to  betray  to  Philip  the  city  of  Bayonne,  the  key 
of  the  Spanish  entrance  on  the  shores  of  the  Bay  of 
Biscay,  signally  failed ;  but,  farther  to  the  east,  the 
younger  Joyeuse,  brother  of  the  favorite  of  Henry  the  Third 
who  lost  his  life  in  the  battle  of  Coutras,  greatly  advanced  the 
cause  of  the  disloyal  party  in  Quercy  and  the  adjacent  region. 
The  important  city  of  Carcassonne  had  fallen  into  his  hands 
toward  the  end  of  the  previous  year,  and  the  whole  of  upper 
Languedoc  seemed  likely  to  share  in  the  fate  of  Carcassonne.2 
Antoine  Scipion  de  Joyeuse,  however,  was  himself  destined  to  be 
a  victim  to  the  strange  mutations  of  fortune  which  were  char- 
acteristic of  this  period.  At  the  close  of  his  brilliant  career 
Defeat  and  °f  almost  uninterrupted  success,  the  ambitious  young 
tSlwsd^on  general,  after  having  ravaged  the  vicinity  of  Mon- 
de  joyeuse.  tauban,  and  captured  Montbartier,  Monbequin,  and 
other  places  of  minor  importance,  proceeded  to  lay  siege  to  the 
city  of  Yillemur,  lying  about  midway  between  Montauban  and 
Toulouse.  It  was  a  venturesome  undertaking,  of  a  kind  against 
which  his  father  had  warned  him  with  his  last  breath.  "  Be 
careful,''  said  Duke  William  of  Joyeuse  to  his  son,  "  not  to  lay 
siege  to  towns  belonging  to  the  adherents  of  the  Protestant 
religion,  since  they  fight  with  desperation  in  defence  of  their 
property,  their  religion,  and  their  lives.  Attack,  if  you  will,  the 
*  Politiques,'  who,  being  of  the  same  religion  with  ourselves,  are 
more  ready  to  enter  into  some  composition,  after  having  made 
sufficient  resistance  to  vindicate  their  honor." 3   Not  only  did  the 


1  May  24th.     De  Thou,  viii.  94-98  ;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  271-274. 

•  See  the  Memoires  de  Jacques  Gaches,  418,  419. 

3  "  Au  mepris  des  dernieres  instructions  du  feu  due  son  pere,  decede  quelque 
temps  auparavant  [in  January,  1592],  qui  luy  avoit  recomniande  de  prendre 
garde  a  n'entreprendre  point  de  siege  des  villes  de  ceux  de  la  religion,  qui  se 


296  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND   HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.      Cii.  XIIL 

garrison  of  Villemur  institute  a  determined  resistance  to  their 
assailants,  but  a  resolute  force  of  Huguenots  gathered  from  all 
quarters  to  its  relief.  Antoine  Scipion  de  Joyeuse  was  him- 
self attacked  in  the  intrenchments  which  he  had  thrown  up 
around  his  army.  Surprised  by  the  suddenness  and  fury  of  the 
assault,  the  Leaguers,  at  the  first  discharge,  abandoned  their 
outermost  works  to  take  refuge  within  a  second  line  of  breast- 
works. A  half-hour  of  hard  fighting  ensued,  when  the  Hu- 
guenot captain,  impatient  at  the  delay,  commanded  his  nephew, 
who  carried  the  colors  of  the  regiment,  to  hurl  them  within  the 
enemy's  ramparts.  "  Let  us  see,"  cried  he  at  the  same  time  to 
his  soldiers  ;  "  let  us  see  whether  our  men  will  be  so  cowardly 
as  to  abandon  the  flag  to  the  foe  !  "  '  At  the  word  the  royal- 
ists rushed  forward,  and,  before  their  opponents  had  realized 
their  situation,  the  works  were  carried.  In  a  few  minutes 
the  forces  of  Joyeuse,  superior  in  numbers,  were  flying  pre- 
cipitately in  the  direction  of  the  river  Tarn  and  the  friendly 
city  of  Toulouse.  In  vain  did  the  duke  endeavor  to  check  the 
panic  of  his  troops ;  they  would  listen  to  no  remonstrance, 
and  he  was  fain  to  follow  their  example.  Unfortunately  the 
bridge  across  the  Tarn  had  been  broken  down,  and,  in  the  at- 
tempt to  save  themselves  by  swimming,  the  fugitives,  in  great 
numbers,  perished  in  its  waters.  Among  them  was  the  young 
duke  himself,  who,  plunging  in  clad  in  full  armor,  was  drowned, 
with  the  curses  called  forth  by  his  ill-success  still  fresh  upon 
his  lips.2 


defendent  en  desesperes  pour  leurs  biens,  pour  leur  religion,  et  pour  leurs  vies; 
mais  de  s'en  prendre  aux  politiques  qui,  estans  de  mesnie  religion  qu'eux.  sont 
plus  faciles  a  composer,  apres  quelque  resistance  pour  leur  honneur.  II  en- 
treprit  ce  siege  sans  se  souvenir  de  tous  ces  advis."  Memoires  de  Jacques 
Gaches,  432. 

1  "  Voyons  un  peu  sy  on  sera  sy  lasche  d'abandonner  le  drapeau  aux  enne- 
mis."    Ibid.,  437. 

2  "  Le  pont  qu'il  avoit  basti  estant  coupe,  causa  la  mort  de  presque  tous  ceux 
qui  avoyent  quitted  la  terre  pour  se  refugier  a  l'eau.  Lui  forcenant  de  despit 
et  aboyant  le  ciel,  'A  Dieu  mes  canons,'  dit-il,  'ha  je  renie  Dieu,  je  cours 
aujourd'hui  grand'  fortune.'  De  ce  pas  il  sachemine  au  Tar  [Tarn],  pour 
se  rendre  comparsonnier  au  malheur  de  ceux  qui  alloyent  en  l'eau,  pour 
souffrir  la  juste  peine  des  maux  que  sous  sa  conduite,  ils  avoyent  fait  par 


1592.  THE  ABJURATION.  297 

It  was  not  otherwise  in  Dauphiny  and  Provence.     There,  too, 

victory  perched  sometimes  upon  the  standards  of  the  Duke  of 

Savoy,  at  others  upon  those  of  Lesdieruieres.     Into 

The  gains  of  * J  r  ° 

the  Duke  of  the  hands  of  the  former  fell  the  small  but  highly 
fortified  port  of  Antibes,  on  the  Mediterranean  coast ; 
and  the  ancient  Roman  town  of  Vienne,  on  the  bank  of  the 
river  Rhone,  was  gotten  through  treachery  by  the  Duke  of 
[Nemours ;  while  their  Huguenot  rival  in  the  art  of  war  pur- 
Achievements  sued  a  course  of  almost  uninterrupted  success  in  the 
anionSg  the^res  n^&a  Alps,  where  no  other  military  leader  of  the  day 
Alps'  seemed  so  much  at  home.     Rocky  defiles  possessed 

no  terrors  for  this  indomitable  general.  The  enemy  were 
amazed  both  at  the  hardihood  and  at  the  expedition  of  a  com- 
mander who  revelled  in  the  accomplishment  of  what  to  others 
appeared  impossible.  Early  in  the  year,  summoned  by  the  ear- 
nest entreaties  of  the  inhabitants  of  Provence,  he  left  the  city 
of  Gap,  and  rapidly  descending  the  narrow  valley  of  the  Beuch, 
threw  himself  upon  the  towns  of  the  Durance  and  of  the  more 
distant  seaboard  which  held  for  the  League.  A  long  list  might 
be  made  of  the  places  that  yielded  to  his  arms  or  opened  their 
gates  in  terror  at  his  approach.1     After  carrying  consternation 


le  feu.  .  .  .  Le  Tar,  par  la  violence  de  son  randon,  le  ravit  d'entre  les 
mains  de  ceux  qui  le  tenoyent;  et  comme  executeur  de  la  justice  divine, 
mit  fin  a,  son  orgueil,  sa  cruaute,  et  ses  blasphemes."  Copie  d'une  lettre 
contenant  le  vrai  et  entier  discours  tant  du  siege  de  Villemur,  que  de  la  de- 
faicte  de  Monsieur  le  Due  de  Joyeuse,  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  178,  179 
— a  long  and  valuable  communication  signed  by  Claude  de  la  Grange,  of 
Montauban,  styled  by  the  author  of  the  Recueil  des  choses  memorables  (p. 
750),  "  excellent  historien,  et  tres  eloquent  entre  les  eloquens  de  nostre 
temps."  The  royalists  lost  but  ten  men;  the  League  two  thousand  men  in 
dead,  and  only  forty-three  prisoners.  Neither  the  Memoires  de  Jacques 
Gaches  (pp.  436-438)  nor  the  Memoires  du  baron  d'Ambres  (apud  Me- 
moires de  la  famille  de  Portal,  353,  354),  both  of  which  are  contemporary  au- 
thorities and  do  ample  justice  to  the  bravery  of  Joyeuse,  make  any  reference 
to  the  alleged  blasphemous  words  of  the  unfortunate  young  man.  See,  also, 
Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  752,  753  ;  De  Thou,  etc. 

1  Among  the  more  important  may  be  noticed  upon  the  map  the  names  of 
Peyrolles,  Jouques,  and  St.  Paul,  on  the  Durance  ;  Castellane,  on  the  Verdon ; 
Aups,  Barjols,  Cotignac,  and  Muy,  on  or  near  the  Argens  ;  La  Cadiere,  near 
Toulon,  etc. 


298  THE   HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.      Ch.  XIII. 

to  the  citizens  of  Nice,  he  turned  westward  and  was  so  success- 
ful in  the  region  beyond  Toulon  that  the  inhabitants  of  Mar- 
seilles were  glad  to  redeem  from  pillage  a  number  of  towns  in 
their  vicinity  by  the  payment  of  twenty  thousand  crowns  of 
gold.1  In  the  autumn  Lesdiguieres  carried  out  a  cherished  plan 
and  in  Pied-  °^  mv&ding  the  ancestral  estates  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy, 
mont.  Crossing  Mont  Genevre  from  Briancon,  with  a  force 

of  six  hundred  horse  and  three  thousand  five  hundred  foot,  he 
ravaged  with  one  part  of  his  army  the  vicinity  of  Susa,  in  the  val- 
ley of  the  Dora  Riparia,  but  meanwhile  directed  the  other  part 
to  the  neighboring  Yal  Pragelas,  descending  into  the  lower  valley 
of  Perouse,  and  advancing  to  the  walls  of  the  city  of  Pignerol 
itself.  His  ladders  proved  too  short  to  enable  him  to  capture 
this  stronghold,  but  Luserne  and  Cavour,  farther  to  the  south, 
fell  into  his  hands.  At  the  entrance  of  the  valley  of  Luserne 
he  constructed  the  powerful  fortification  of  Briqueras.2  Here, 
among  the  Italian  Waldenses,  the  Huguenot  soldiers  of  Lesdi- 
guieres— many  of  them  doubtless  descendants  from  the  same 
stock,  Waldenses  or  Vaudois  from  the  valleys  of  Freissinicres 
and  Queyras  among  the  mountains  of  Upper  Dauphiny,  or  from 
Merindol  and  Cabrieres  on  the  Lower  Durance — found  them- 
selves in  the  midst  of  a  people  of  the  same  faith.  Loyalty  to 
their  prince  struggled  in  the  breasts  of  their  hosts  with  religious 
sympathy  and  the  sense  of  a  community  of  interests.  If  we 
may  credit  the  French  historians,  the  Waldenses  testified  in 
their  countenances  their  delight  at  the  coming  of  the  French, 
wrought  with  zeal  on  the  works  of  Briqueras,  and  took  without 
reluctance  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Henry  the  Fourth,  which 
was  required  of  them.  Their  own  historians  give  a  different  ac- 
count of  the  matter,  and  insist  that  the  Waldenses  at  first  refused 
to  take  the  oath,  and  only  complied  with  the  repeated  demand 
after  having  received  from  Turin  the  secret  consent  of  the 
Duchess  of  Savoy — her  husband  was  absent  in  Provence — and 
of  her  council.     Their  assertion  does  not  appear  to  be  gronnd- 


1  "  Brief  recit  des  exploits  de  guerre  du  sieur  des  Diguieres  "  etc.,   in  If  - 
moires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  781,  782  ;  De  Thou,  viii.  110,  111. 

2  De  Thou,  viii.  113-119. 


1592.  THE   ABJURATION.  299 

less,  if,  as  is  said,  at  the  end  of  the  two  years  of  French  occu- 
pation the  Waldenses  were  able  to  convince  the  duke's  council 
— certainly  not  prejudiced  in  their  favor — of  the  integrity  and 
loyalty  of  their  conduct.1 

There  could  be  little  doubt  that,  in  estimating  accurately  the 
relative  importance  of  the  gains  and  losses  of  the  king  during 
the  year  1592,  the  balance  would  be  found  to  be  somewhat  in 
favor  of  his  majesty.  He  had  rather  advanced  than  receded 
in  his  struggle  for  universal  recognition.  Yet  the  inquiry  nat- 
urally forced  itself  upon  the  minds  of  the  worldly-wise — How 
long  will  it  require,  at  so  slow  a  rate,  to  secure  ultimate  success? 
Evidently  the  moment  was  rapidly  approaching  when  Henry, 
if  he  were  not  firm  in  his  religious  convictions,  would  see  no 
other  way  to  the  attainment  of  his  hopes  than  by  a  renuncia- 
tion of  the  faith  in  which  he  had  been  brought  up — a  moment 
when,  too,  he  would  not  lack  for  prudent  advisers  to  suggest  to 
him  the  necessity  of  no  longer  hesitating  to  give  France  peace 
by  the  sacrifice  of  his  personal  preferences. 

Outside  of  the  kingdom  the  prospect  was  dark.  The  great 
ally  of  the  League  was  deeply  interested  in  its  success,  profuse 
in  promises,  and  lavish  of  men  and  treasure ;  the  nearest  and 
most  natural  ally  of  the  king  was  capricious,  at  times  indiffer- 
ent. "  Our  neighbors,"  wrote  Duplessis  Mornay  on  one  occa- 
sion— and  his  words  clearly  pointed  to  Queen  Eliza- 
the king's  beth  of  England — "give  us  succor  only  out  of  season 
and  peevishly,  while  the  King  of  Spain  neglects  every- 
thing else  that  he  may  attack  us,  denies  himself  everything  that 
he  may  be  able  to  supply  our  enemies.  He  esteems  the  affairs 
of  France  to  be  more  his  own  affairs  than  those  which  imme- 
diately concern  him ;  whereas  our  neighbors  of  whom  I  have 
spoken  are  nettled  if  one  merely  suggest  to  them  that  they  too 
have  interests  at  stake.  These  are  the  reasons  that  lead  us  to 
look  about  us  for  the  best  means  of  reaching  a  peace.'1 2  Nor 
was  the  Huguenot    diplomatist  overstating  the  case  with    re- 


1  See  Monastier,  Histoire  de  l'eglise  vaudoise  depuis  son  origine,  et  des  Vau- 
dois  du  Piedmont,  i.  303,  304. 

2 Duplessis  Mornay  to  Buzenval,  April  18,  1592,  Memoires,  v.  303. 


300  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.     Ch.  XIII. 

spect  to  the  great  Protestant  queen.  When,  some  three  or  four 
months  before  the  time  at  which  he  wrote,  Duplessis  Mornay 
was  sent  to  England  to  solicit  help  for  the  king  his  master, 
he  found  Elizabeth  boiling  with  anger  against  Henry  for  his 
dilatoriness,  against  the  Earl  of  Essex  for  not  bringing  back 
the  troops  she  had  sent  to  France — in  short,  against  every  one 
concerned.  In  a  second  interview  she  did  indeed  treat  Du- 
plessis Mornay  and  his  fellow-envoy  with  a  little  more 

Queen  Eliza-     r  d  J 

beth'scapri-    courtesy,  and,  after  reading  a  memorial  handed  in  bv 


ciousness. 


them,  actually  consented  that  they  should  have  two 
thousand  pikemen  and  one  thousand  musketeers  ;  but  in  the 
brief  space  of  two  hours  she  changed  her  mind  again,  and  was 
furious  in  her  reproaches  against  her  own  counsellors,  whom  she 
openly  accused  of  collusion  with  the  Frenchmen.  In  short, 
Queen  Elizabeth  dismissed  Duplessis  Mornay  and  Beau  voir 
with  the  assurance  that  henceforth  she  would  content  herself 
with  "  praying "  for  the  King  of  France.  To  which  the  Hu- 
guenots very  naturally  replied  that  her  majesty  must  pardon 
them  for  saying,  that  to  pray  to  God  in  the  king's  behalf  was 
indeed  a  woman's  succor,  but  not  the  aid  to  be  expected  of  a 
queen  and  powerful  princess  such  as  she  was,  who  to  her  prayers 
ought  to  add  of  her  means.  It  was  characteristic  of  the  tickle 
Elizabeth  that  scarcely  had  Essex  regained  the  shores  of  Great 
Britain  before  she  despatched  to  Henry  a  re-enforcement  of  two 
thousand  men — one-half  of  what  he  had  asked  for — with  an 
intimation  that  she  did  so  in  consequence  of  the  reason- 
duced  by  the  late  envoys.1  So  fitful  and  uncertain  were  the 
breezes  that  came  across  the  Channel  as  compared  with  the 
strong  and  steady  currents  of  help  from  Spain  ! 

The  spasmodic  and  uncertain  support,  which  was  all  that  he 
could  hope  to  obtain  from  his  Protestant  allies,  led  Henry  to 
consider  the  quickest  means  of  securing  peace,  and  this  con- 
sideration prompted  the  secret  negotiations   into  which  Du- 


1  See  at  great  length  the  "Negotiation  de  M.  Duplessis  en  Angleterre.  en 
Janvier  1592,"  in  the  Memoires,  v.  152-188  ;  and  the  instructions  of  the 
envoy  signed  by  Henry  IV.  in  camp  before  Rouen,  December,  1591,  ibid., 
v.  129-137. 


1592.  THE  ABJURATION.  301 

plessis  -Mornay  entered,  on  behalf  of  his  majesty,  with  Yilleroy, 
representing  May  en  ne  and  the  League.  This  was  during  the 
siege  of  Rouen  (March  and  April,  1592).  The  time 
between  Du-  had  at  last  come  when  the  leaders  of  the  rebellion 
nay  and  vii-  were,  with  few  exceptions,  ready  to  throw  off  the  mask 
of  religion,  and  make  such  terms  as  their  prolonged 
resistance  to  the  king's  arms  seemed  to  entitle  them  to  dictate, 
^so  talk  now  of  the  crime  of  treating  with  an  heretical  prince, 
excommunicated  by  Mother  Holy  Church.  Those  hitherto  so 
fiery  in  their  zeal  were  quite  ready  to  lay  down  their  arms  if  only 
their  private  interests  might  be  duly  considered.  The  Duke  of 
Mayenne,  now  hopeless  of  securing  the  crown  of  France  for  him- 
self, at  heart  preferred  to  see  that  bawble  resting  upon  the  head 
of  Henry  rather  than  gracing  the  brow  either  of  the  decrepit 
Philip  the  Second  or  of  the  Infanta,  his  daughter.  Even  the 
Duchess  of  Kemours  and  the  Duke  of  Montpensier  were  re- 
ported to  be  for  peace  and  reconciliation.  Only  Madame  de 
Guise  was  opposed,  because  she  still  hoped  to  see  her  son  upon 
the  throne  as  husband  of  the  Infanta,  and  Monsieur  de  Rosne, 
by  reason  of  the  two  thousand  crowns  he  drew  monthly  from 
Spain.1 

It  was  the  private  conditions  demanded  by  the  leaders  which 
Duplessis  Mornay  was  most  anxious  to  ascertain.  What  use 
was  there  in  treating  of  the  religious  question,  of  the  king's 
u  instruction  "  and  prospective  "  reunion  "  with  the  "  Catholic 
Mayenne^  se-  Church,"  which  were  but  excuses,  so  long  as  the  price 
tionSexpecta  at  which  ea°h  one  of  the  noblemen  now  loud  in  pro- 
fessions of  zeal  was  ready  to  sell  out  his  opposition  had 
not  been  definitely  stated  ?  The  Huguenot  declined  to  begin 
serious  discussion  until  the  envoy  of  the  League  should  have 
produced  his  instructions  upon  this  point.  Yilleroy,  however, 
protested  with  great  solemnity  that  he  had  no  documents  of  the 
kind  about  him.  His  master  was  too  disinterested,  forsooth,  to 
suffer  any  selfish  purposes  of  his  own  to  interfere  with  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  common  weal.     But  Duplessis  Mornay  had  too 


1  Memoire  sent  by  Duplessis  Mornay  to  the  king,  March  28,  1592,  ihid.,  v. 
247,  248. 


302  THE   HUGUENOTS   AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.      Ch.  XIII. 

large  an  experience  in  the  arts  of  diplomacy  to  give  much  credit 
to  such  asseverations.  By  and  by  his  companion  is  seen  to 
change  countenance ;  he  hesitates,  his  denials  become  more 
faint,  and  finally,  not  without  many  indications  of  the  shame 
he  feels  to  be  engaged  in  such  ignoble  work,  he  draws  out  of 
his  pocket  the  desired  paper.  There  it  is  in  black  and  white. 
Over  against  each  name,  beginning  with  that  of  Mayenne  him- 
self, stands  the  precise  sum,  in  honors,  offices,  and  filthy  lucre, 
at  which  the  submission  of  the  owner  of  the  name  can  be 
bought.  Villeroy,  under  promise  of  strict  secrecy,  produces  the 
key  to  the  cipher,  and  puts  Duplessis  Mornay  in  possession  of 
the  precious  facts :  The  Duke  of  Mayenne  demands  the  gov- 
ernment  of  the  province  of  Burgundy  in  perpetuity  for  himself 
and  for  his  heirs  after  him  ;  the  royal  domain  of  the  same  prov- 
ince as  a  pledge  for  some  notable  sum  ;  the  right  to  dispose  of 
all  civil  offices  and  churchly  benefices  in  the  same  province ;  a 
large  amount  of  ready  money  to  pay  his  debts  ;  and  a  dignity 
that  shall  elevate  him  above  all  other  subjects  of  the  French 
crown.  The  Dukes  of  Mercceur,  Xemonrs,  Guise,  and  Joyeuse 
are  a  little  more  modest  in  their  claims.  Each  must  have  the 
government  he  now  possesses  assured  to  him,  together  with  the 
right  to  nominate  the  governors  of  the  included  cities  and 
towns. 

Duplessis  Mornay  had  come  prepared  for  extravagant  de- 
mands ;  he  had  certainly  expected  no  such  exorbitant  demands 
as  these.  Glad  as  he  was  to  come  at  the  truth — especially  glad 
to  possess  the  proof  that  the  leaders  were  ready  for  a  sale — he 
threatened  at  once  to  break  off  the  negotiations.  He 
memberment  informed  Villeroy  that  what  was  proposed  was  nothing 

of  France. 

less  than  the  dismemberment  and  ruin  of  France.  A 
man  might,  under  certain  circumstances,  be  willing  to  cut  off 
an  arm  to  save  his  life;  he  would  never  consent  to  part  with 
one  to  destroy  his  life.  It  might  be  reasonable  to  advise  the 
king  to  sacrifice  Burgundy  for  the  purpose  of  preserving  the 
rest  of  his  realm  ;  but  the  example  would  be  disastrous,  inas- 
much as  five  or  six  chieftains,  over  whom  the  authority  of 
Mayenne  was  but  slight,  would  each  want  his  share  of  the  king- 
dom— the  princes  of  the  blood  with  better  reasons  than  the  rest. 


1592.  THE   ABJURATION.  303 

As  to  the  duke's  demand  for  a  rank  superior  to  all  others,  it 
meant  nothing  else  than  that  the  ambitious  prince  should  be 
constituted  a  mayor  of  the  palace  or  a  lieutenant  general  of 
France.1 

Irrespective  of  the  greed  of  the  nobles  of  the  League,  the 

difficulties  confronting  Duplessis  Mornay  in  the  negotiation  were 

great.     He  was  fully  aware  of  the  pressure  brought 

Duplessis 

Mornay  dim-  to  bear  upon  the  king  b}T  his  own  adherents.     "  Our 

cult  position.      -^      .      .,     *       .  ..  ,_     . 

Catholics,  he  wrote,  "  desire  peace  at  all  hazards  ; 
they  blame  us  and  say  that  everything  depends  on  the  king, 
that  for  the  sake  of  an  opinion  he  is  losing  the  state  ;  and 
thereupon,  one  after  another,  they  enter  into  private  truces 
which  go  so  far  that  one  of  these  days  the  king  will  be  sustain- 
ing the  war  alone."3  Henry  himself  had  long  been  proclaim- 
ing his  willingness  to  be  "  instructed,"  and  declaring  that  he 
would  not  be  found  to  be  "  obstinate."  If  the  instruction  had 
not  yet  taken  place,  it  was  no  fault  of  his,  but  rather  the  fault 
of  the  papal  legate  and  of  other  ecclesiastics  who  had  absolutely 
forbidden  the  required  conference.  The  Roman  Catholics  who 
adhered  to  the  king's  party,  and  likewise  the  better-disposed 
part  of  those  not  yet  united  with  him,  understood  this  instruc- 
tion to  be  only  another  name  for  conversion,  and  were  urgent 
that  Henry  should  at  once  declare  his  intention  to  be  reconciled 
with  the  Romish  Church  within  a  certain  prescribed  term.  That 
his  master  was  fully  resolved  to  barter  the  faith  in  which  he 
had  been  brought  up  for  the  crown — if  indeed  Henry  was  fully 
resolved  at  this  time — Duplessis  Mornay  did  not  as  yet  know. 
That  faithful  Protestant  had  but  one  object  in  view — to  secure 
quiet  for  his  native  land  without  the  sacrifice  of  principle.  "  We 
are  engaged  in  treating  for  peace,"  he  wrote  on  one  occasion, 
"  but  nothing  will  be  done  to  the  prejudice  of  the  glory  of 
God."  :  Yet  in  the  same  letter  he  did  not  disguise  his  appre- 
hension of  danger.      "  These  men  with  whom  we  are  treating 


1  See  the  graphic  account  in  the  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste  sur  la 
vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  i.  218-220. 

'2  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Buzenval,  April  18,  1592,  Memoires,  v.  303. 

3  Duplessis  Mornay  to  M.  de  la  Fontaine,  May  16,  1592,  Memoires,  v.  334. 


304      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIIL 

demand  much,  but  we  must  come  out  with  boldness.  They  and 
we  are  like  two  combatants  on  the  edge  of  a  precipice,  each  un- 
certain who  shall  throw  his  fellow,  each  in  danger,  even  when 
pushing,  of  himself  falling  in.     Pray  to  God  for  us  !  "  ' 

As  the  result  of  much  discussion,  a  memorandum  was  virtu- 
ally adopted  for  submission  to  Henry,  under  the  heading,  "  The 
expedient  proposed."  It  ran  as  follows :  "  The  king  shall  prom- 
ise his  instruction  within  a  definite  period,  with  desire  and  in- 
tention to  unite  himself  to  and  join  the  Catholic  Church,  by 
means  of  the  said  instruction,  conducted  as  comports  with  his 
dignity. 

"  He  shall  permit  the  Catholics  who  accompany  him  to  send 
to  the  pope,  to  be  aided  by  his  counsel  and  authority  to  facilitate 
and  effect  the  said  instruction,  as  is  becoming. 

"  And,  meantime,  consideration  shall  forthwith  be  secretly 
given  to  the  most  appropriate  means  of  affording  safety  to  relig- 
ion and  to  the  private  individuals  who  have  an  interest  in  the 
cause,  whether  to  be  employed  after  the  conversion,  or,  if  need 
be,  before  it,  so  as  to  relieve  the  kingdom  of  the  burden  of  war 
by  a  suspension  of  hostilities  or  otherwise."  2 

Here  were  articles  sufficiently  vague  and  indefinite,  articles, 
moreover,  which,  if  not  positively  menacing  to  the  Protestant  in- 
terests, were  certainly  not  free  from  suspicious  phraseology.  To 
understand  the  attitude  of  the  Huguenot  diplomatist  in  advo- 
cating the  adoption  of  this  basis  of  settlement,  the  articles  must 
be  read  in  connection  with  his  private  comments  intended  only 
for  the  king's  eye — comments  respecting  which  the  writer  was  so 
anxious  that  he  begged  his  majesty  to  return  the  despatch  to  the 
bearer  in  order  that  it  might  not  go  astray.3 

"  The  intention  is,"  says  Duplessis  Mornay,  "  that  if  the 
enemy  approve  this  expedient,  we  shall  settle  with  M.  de  Vil- 
leroy  upon  two  kinds  of  articles ;  the  one  to  take  effect  when 


1  Duplessis  Mornay  to  M.  de  la  Fontaine,  May  16,  1592,  Memoire's,  v.  335. 

2  The  three  articles  appear  in  a  minute  sent  to  the  king,  accompanying  a 
letter  of  Duplessis  Mornay,  dated  Mantes,  April  4,  1592,  and  entitled  M  Inex- 
pedient propose."     Ibid.,  v.  270,  271. 

3  "  Je  supplie  vostre  majeste  de  rendre  la  presente  despeche  au  porteur,  afin 
qu'elle  ne  s'esgare." 


159a.  THE  ABJURATION.  305 

the  conversion  may  have  come  about,  the  other  before  its  occur- 
rence.1 In  which  matter  we  must  have  this  dexterity,  to  make 
the  latter  kind  so  good  that  they  shall  cause  men  to  neglect  the 
former,  and  consequently  insist  less  upon  the  pretended  con- 
version. For,  when  interests  shall  have  been  removed  out  of 
the  way  and  personal  desires  shall  have  been  satisfied,  the  bare 
pretext  remaining  will  have  no  great  weight  in  their  case;  and 
it  may  be  that,  without  waiting  to  hear  from  the  pope,  they  will 
pass  on  either  to  a  peace  or  to  a  long  truce  which  will  detacli 
them  from  Spain."  2 

We  must  not  be  misled,  by  our  knowledge  of  what  actually 
occurred  at  a  subsequent  time,  into  supposing  that,  in  penning 
The  Huguenot  these  lines,  Duplessis  Mornay — zealous  Protestant 
king^ "kie  that  he  was — had  in  his  mind's  eye  any  such  "  in- 
struction." strUction  "  or  "  conversion  "  as  that  which,  in  point  of 
fact,  preceded  the  abjuration  of  Saint  Denis.  Duplessis  Mornay 
looked  forward,  indeed,  to  an  instruction  as  unavoidable.  It 
had  been  promised  by  the  king,  and  it  was  not  in  itself  unde- 
sirable. But  it  was  to  be  no  mock-fight.  Much  rather  was  the 
world  to  witness  an  orderly  marshalling  of  forces,  Protestant 
and  Roman  Catholic,  to  discuss,  in  the  august  presence  of  the 
monarch,  the  points  of  doctrine,  government,  and  practice  re- 
garding which  the  two  systems  differed — a  sort  of  grander  and 
more  equitable  "  Colloquy  of  Poissy,"  to  which  the  theologians 
on  both  sides  should  come  fully  equipped  ;  where  no  arrogant 
Cardinal  of  Lorraine  would  be  allowed  to  prescribe  terms  of 
subscription,  because  the  contest  would  be  presided  over,  not  by 
a  timid  and  time-serving  queen-mother,  nor  by  a  feeble  boy-king, 
but  by  a  quick-witted  and  chivalric  monarch  who  had  faced  the 
cannon's  mouth,  and  could  therefore  be  expected  to  despise  the 
puny  artillery  of  bigots.  If,  after  such  a  conflict  of  learning 
and  ability,  the  king  should  be  "  converted" — a  supposition  hard- 
ly possible — let  the  conversion  come.  The  Huguenot  statesman 
gave  Henry  of  Navarre  credit,  notwithstanding  all  his  faults, 
sensual  and  of  other  sorts — and  no  one  knew  the  king's  faults 

1  "  Deux  sortes  d' articles  :  les  ungs  pour  avoir  lieu  avenant  la  conversion, 
les  aultres  avant  icelle."  2  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

Vol.  II.— 20 


306  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.      Ch.  XIIL 

better  than  did  Duplessis  Mornay,  though  the  king  had  paid 
him  this  high  tribute  of  respect  that  he  never  had  made  him 
the  confidant  of  his  amours  ] — at  leact,  for  the  intention  to  af- 
ford a  respectful  and  equal  hearing  to  the  representatives  of 
his  own  religious  views,  men  who  had  been  his  companion-  in 
council  and  upon  the  battle-field.  The  Protestants  would,  Du- 
plessis Mornay  was  assured,  enjoy  the  fullest  opportunity  of 
setting  forth  their  own  views  and  of  combating  those  of  their 
opponents.  "  His  majesty  promises  to  submit  to  instruction," 
he  wrote.  "  This  may  engender  a  conference,  perhaps  within 
six  or  seven  months.  We  must  make  preparations  for  it,  and  I 
have  therefore  persuaded  him  to  agree  that  I  should  bring  to- 
gether at  Saumur  seven  or  eight  of  the  most  distinguished  min- 
isters of  France,  so  that  they  may  fortify  themselves  beforehand. 
I  promise  myself  that,  by  a  method  which  I  have  proposed  to 
M.  de  Eeaulieu,  and  which  he  adopts  heartily,  great  advantage 
will  result.  You  know  his  good  judgment.  I  have  nominated 
}^ou,  among  others,  to  the  king,  and  have  obtained  his  con. -en t. 
I  beg  you  to  let  me  know  whether  you  will  be  able  to  come  to 
Saumur.  Try  by  every  means  in  your  power  to  do  so  ;  for  it  is 
a  decisive  move.  It  may,  at  latest,  be  in  two  months.  His  maj- 
esty will  meet  all  the  expenses."  a 

Not  content  with  merely  sketching  the  general  outlines  of 
this  preparatory  conference  of  Protestant  theologians,  Duples- 
sis Mornay  even  elaborated  the  details.  Be  it  a  formal  council 
of  all  France,  or  a  simple  colloquy,  which  should  result  from 
the  promise  of  instruction,  the  fruits  must  not  be  lost  by  want 
of  timely  attention  to  some  minute  point  of  contro- 

A  full  and  JL         i  •     1      1  -\       r  -n  \         -\        • 

fair  discus-     versy.    Hie  little  band  or  Protestant  theologians  were 

not  only  to  be  well  provided  with  lodging  and  food, 

but  to  have  within  reach  every  convenience,  and  especially  to 

enjoy  access  to  the  best  books.    They  were  to  refresh  their  mem- 


1  "Continuant  en  la  facon  dont  il  avoit  tousjours  vescu  auparavant  avec  M. 
Duplessis,  auquel,  nonobstant  quelconques  privautez,  il  n'avoit  jamais  parle  de 
ses  amours,  le  tenant  suspect  en  tous  telz  affaires."  Memoires  de  Charlotte 
Arbaleste  sur  la  vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  i.  84? 

2  Duplessis  Mornay  to  M.  de  la  Fontaine.  May  16,  1592,  Memoires,  v.  335. 


1592.  THE  ABJURATION.  307 

cries  as  to  the  ancient  Christian  writers,  and  especially  as  to  the 
scholastics.  Each  would  have  his  special  portion  to  study,  and 
each  would  take  notes  of  what  he  read.  Thus  would  it  be  dis- 
tinctly seen  for  how  long  a  time  purity  of  doctrine  had  been 
maintained  in  the  church,  when  and  how  abuses  had  crept  in, 
by  what  means  they  had  grown,  and  who  were  those  who 
opposed  them  at  each  successive  stage  of  their  development. 
Men  thus  equipped  for  their  work,  entering  into  a  dispute  in 
the  presence  of  a  king  whose  single  word  would  effectually 
check  all  extravagance  of  discussion,  might  reasonably  expect 
both  to  strengthen  his  majesty's  religious  convictions  and  to 
prove  to  the  most  ignorant  and  malevolent  of  Roman  Catholics 
that  the  Protestant  system  of  doctrines  rested  on  a  firm  foun- 
dation of  truth  and  reason. 

Moreover,  it  was  a  part  of  the  Huguenot  statesman's  plan  that 
Henry  should  order  a  list  to  be  drawn  up  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic ecclesiastics  most  distinguished  for  learning,  excellence  of 
life,  and  zeal  for  the  restoration  of  the  church  to  its  pristine 
purity.  From  this  roll  all  vacancies  in  the  hierarchy  must  be 
filled,  in  order  that,  when  the  council  should  assemble,  it  might 
be  found  that  the  soundest  part  of  the  Gallican  clergy  was  rep- 
resented. Similar  lists  of  the  nobles  and  the  judiciary  were  to 
be  made.  From  their  joint  labors  a  greater  glory  would  accrue 
to  Henry  the  Fourth  than  had  fallen  to  the  lot  of  any  or  all 
princes  during  the  last  millennium.1 

Unfortunately,  the  bright  vision  of  Duplessis  Mornay  shared 
the  fate  of  many  another  sanguine  anticipation  of  the  re- 
formers of  the  sixteenth  century  and  their  immediate  succes- 
sors. The  king  listened  with  attention,  with  apparent  approval, 
but  never  took  the  necessary  measures  to  insure  success. 

The  negotiations  of  Duplessis  Mornay  and  Villeroy  came  to 
nothing.  The  publicity  which  had  unintentionally  been  given 
Thenegotia-  to  tnem  rendered  it  advisable  that  the  interviews  be- 
tionends.  tween  the  agents  should  be  intermitted.  But  they 
had  served  the  incidental  purpose  of  revealing  inclinations 
toward  peace  which  had  hitherto  been  concealed  or  denied,  and 

1  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste  sur  la  vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  i.  238-241. 


308     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIII. 

of  pointing  out  the  terms  of  private  advantage  upon  which  the 
leaders,  who  prated  loudly  of  their  incorruptible  integrity  and 
unassailable  disinterestedness,  were  at  any  moment  prepared  to 
betray  and  abandon  their  dupes. 

Upon  Henry  himself  the  suggestions  of  Villeroy  and  the 
pressure  of  the  Roman  Catholic  nobles  about  him  had  one  no- 
table effect.  He  resolved  to  attempt  a  more  direct  effort  than 
he  had  ever  before  made  to  gain  over  the  pontifical  See. 
Death  had  of  late  been  very  busy  with  the  occupants  of  the 
papal   throne.     Gregory  the   Fourteenth,   the   great 

Henry  tries 

to  make  a       Drop  of  the  League,  died  in  the  month  of  October, 

friend  of  x        r  ° 

element  the  1591.  His  successor,  Innocent  the  Ninth,  bade  fair 
to  follow  in  Gregory's  footsteps,  and  had  engaged  to 
contribute  fifty  thousand  crowns  monthly  from  the  revenues  of 
the  church  to  the  support  of  the  French  rebels,  when  his  pontifi- 
cate was  abruptly  ended  by  his  decease,  within  two  months  after 
his  elevation.  A  third  pope  now  came  upon  the  scene,  in  the  per- 
son of  Cardinal  Aldobrandini,  who  assumed  the  designation  of 
Clement  the  Eighth.  Though  a  former  partisan  of  Sixtns,  and, 
like  his  master,  no  friend  of  the  Spaniard,  the  new  pontiff  was 
too  shrewd  to  fall  into  the  mistake  committed  by  Sixtns,  and 
incur  the  suspicion  or  hatred  of  the  powerful  party  of  zealots 
at  Home  by  withholding  contributions  to  the  maintenance  of 
the  French  League,  or  by  recalling  from  France  that  fiery  leg- 
ate, the  Bishop  of  Piacenza.1  On  the  contrary,  he  deemed  it 
prudent,  before  three  months  had  elapsed,  to  issue,  on  the  fif- 
*  teenth  of  April,  a  brief  addressed  to  that  legate,  pro- 

Clement's  .  f  .  _    _     -     -P  _  .    *       _ 

brief  for  the  viding  lor  the  election  or  a  new  and  Catholic  king  or 
new  and  cath-  France.  The  document  had  the  usual  fate  of  papal 
bulls  about  this  time.  It  was  duly  registered  by  the 
Leaguer  Parliament  of  Paris,  while  the  royalist  Parliament  at 
Chalons  forbade  its  publication,  uttered  threats  against  any 
person  who  should  presume  to  retain  a  copy  in  his  possession, 
denounced  the  men  who  were  desirous  of  introducing  "  the 
Spanish  barbarians  "  into  the  kingdom,  and  cited  the  legate  to 
appear  at  the  bar  of  the  court.     The  Parliament  of  Paris  re- 

1  Ranke,  History  of  the  Popes,  230. 


1592.  THE   ABJURATION.  309 

torted  by  ordering  the  decree  of  the  Chalons  judges  to  be  pub- 
licly burned  at  the  foot  of  the  great  staircase  of  the  Palais  de 
Justice,  in  the  presence  of  the  Duke  of  Mayenne.1 

Not  deterred  by  Clement's  hostile  demonstrations,  Henry  the 

Fourth  resolved  to  send  an  embassy  to  Rome,  with  the  view  of 

paving  the  way  to  a  reconciliation.     The  event  was  of  m'oro 

than  ordinary  significance.      Ostensibly,  the  Cardinal 

Cardinal  i.^ij»ti  i        •  i 

Gondy  and  or  (rondy  set  out  for  Italy  merely  in  the  capacity 
ny  sent  to  "  of  a  member  of  the  papal  consistory  ;  the  Marquis  of 
Pisany,  solely  to  visit  his  wife  and  his  family  connec- 
tions. In  reality,  the  marquis  was  the  bearer  of  the  messages  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  princes  of  the  court ;  while  with  the  cardi- 
nal Duplessis  Mornay  had,  by  royal  command,  held  long  con- 
ferences, and  had  fully  instructed  him  as  to  the  arguments  he 
should  employ  in  order  to  convince  Clement  of  the  absurdity  of 
the  pretext  of  religion  alleged  by  the  League.  He  was  to  assure 
the  pope  that  those  who  now  endeavored  to  make  capital  of  the 
"heresy"  of  Henry  had  not  scrupled  to  make  advances  to  se- 
cure Henry's  favor.  He  was  to  tell  him  that  this  was  equally 
true  of  Philip  himself,  wdio  had  sought  to  induce  him  to  rebel 
against  Henry  of  Valois,  by  the  offer  of  great  treasure  and  by 
the  promise  not  to  desert  him  until  he  should  have  placed  the 
French  crown  upon  his  head,  and  of  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  who 
had  secretly  solicited  his  alliance  at  the  very  moment  when  he 
was  himself  in  command  of  an  army  for  the  extermination  of 
the  heretics.  Gondy  was  to  warn  Clement,  at  the  same  time,  of 
the  impolicy  of  promoting  the  ambitious  plans  of  Spain,  which, 
if  successful,  would  degrade  the  pope  to  the  position  of  a  private 
chaplain  of  the  great  king,  and  the  cardinals  to  be  the  surpliced 
clerks  of  the  royal  chapel.  He  was  to  lay  before  him  the  danger 
of  provoking  to  an  open  schism  a  country  like  France,  which 
had  of  late  been  compelled  to  take  decisive  steps  to  curb  ultra- 
montane insolence,  whose  parliaments  had  forbidden  the  faith- 
ful to  send  money  to  Rome,  had  burned  papal  bulls,  and  had 


1  See  De  Thou,  viii.  (book  103)  87-89;  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  755- 
757 ;  and,  for  the  text  of  the  arret  of  the  Parliament  of  Chalons,  Memoires 
de  la  Ligue,  v.  188-190. 


310      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XI I L 

made  systematic  arrangements  for  the  supply  of  vacant  benefices 
by  recurring  to  tlie  metropolitans,  archbishops,  and  bishops  of 
the  kingdom,  independently  of  the  pontifical  curia.1 

There  was  one  document  wherewith  the  ambassadors  went  pro- 
vided which  was  not  from  the  pen  of  Duplessis  Mornay,  author 
of  most  of  the  other  despatches.  This  was  a  letter  of  Henry 
the  Fourth  himself  to  Clement.  As  often  as  the  matter  had 
been  broached,  Duplessis  Mornay  had  dissuaded  his  master  from 
writing  to  the  pope.  "  Your  majesty,"  said  he,  "  cannot  in 
good  conscience  write  to  him  in  the  form  used  by  your  predeces- 
sors ;  to  write  otherwise  would  be  more  damaging  than  useful."  ' 
The  letter  which  Henry  actually  sent  is,  therefore,  the  more 
interesting,  as  an  indication  of  the  complete  submis- 

Henry'slet-  .  °'  .  r 

ter  to  the        sion  to  papal  authority  here  ioresnadowed. 

"  Most  holy  Father,"  said  the  still  professedly  Prot- 
estant king  to  the  head  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  "as  we 
are  resolved  to  cause  to  be  proffered  in  our  name,  and  to  ren- 
der during  our  entire  life,  the  obedience  which  we  owe  to  your 
Holiness  and  to  the  Apostolic  See,  we  desire  also  to  resume 
and  to  observe  in  all  things  the  same  means  that  have  been  held 
and  employed  by  the  Very  Christian  kings,  our  predecessors,  in 
the  observance  of  the  honor  and  respect  due  to  the  Holy  Father 
and  the  Holy  See;  and  this  for  the  purpose  of  entertaining, 
together  with  the  filial  devotion  and  reverence  that  belong  to 
it,  the  good  and  perfect  intelligence  which  is  requisite  between 
the  Holy  See  and  the  kings  and  the  kingdom  of  France,  for  the 
universal  weal  of  Christendom  and  the  maintenance  therein  of 
the  holy  Catholic  church  and  religion."  Hence  his  majesty  was 
desirous  of  having  an  ordinary  ambassador  at  Rome,  and  sent 
the  Marquis  of  Pisany,  who  had  served  in  this  capacity  under  his 
predecessor,  Henry  the  Third,  "que  Dieu  absolve" — "whom 
may  God  pardon."  3 

1  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste  sur  la  vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  i.  235-228 
See  De  Thou,  viii.  85. 

2  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste,  i.  230.  One  would  infer  from  Madame 
Duplessis  Mornay 's  words  that  she  was  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  the  king  wrote 
to  Clement  despite  her  husband's  advice. 

s  Henry  IV.  to  the  pope,  October  8,  1592,  Lettres  missives,  iii.  674,  675. 


1592.  THE  ABJURATION.  311 

It  might  be  little  that  the  king  deliberately  inserted  the  objec- 
tionable formula  which  had  so  scandalized  his  old  companions  in 
arms  and  his  Protestant  fellow-believers  at  the  time  of  his  acces- 
sion to  the  throne  :  it  was  of  more  consequence  that  the  entire 
tone  of  this  letter,  as  of  a  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Tuscany  sent  by 
the  same  hands,  betrayed  a  readiness  to  renounce  Protestantism 
and  to  submit  to  the  Romish  church,  quite  irrespectively  of  any 
"instruction,"  whether  by  council,  conference,  or  otherwise. 

And  yet  the  pope  was  not  ready  to  welcome  the  prodigal  son 

who  showed  symptoms  of  a  disposition  to  return  !     Great  was 

the  iov,  both  in  Rome  and  at    Paris,    when   it  was 

Clement  for-  J    * 

wdsGondyto  learned  that  the  pope  had  shown  such  anger  at  the 
states  of  the    news   of  Gondy's  approach,  that  he  actually    sent  a 

Dominican  monk  to  meet  him  at  Florence  and  forbid 
him  to  set  foot  within  the  States  of  the  Church.  In  order  to 
add  insult  to  injury,  the  friar  delivered  the  message  to  the  car- 
dinal in  the  presence  of  the  grand  duke,  and  just  when  the  lat- 
ter was  giving  in  marriage  one  of  his  nieces  to  a  prince  of  the 
house  of  Sforza.1 

Will  it  be  believed  that,  while  sending  Gondy  and  Pisany  to 
Italy  in  order  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  recognition  by  the  pope 
based  upon  his  approaching  abjuration,  Henry  the  Fourth  was 
despatching  another  envoy,   the  Sieur  du  Maurier,   across  the 

British  Channel,  for  the  express  purpose  of  deceiving 

Henry  tries  to  -  '  .  ,   .       .        r  n  & 

deceive  Queen  Queen  Elizabeth  respecting  his  intentions  s     It  was, 

Elizabeth.  i  o  ? 

of  course,  beyond  the  range  of  possibility  that  his  old 
and  faithful  ally  should  not  speedily  learn,  from  her  agents  in 
France  and  in  Italy,  the  departure  of  Gondy  and  Pisany,  and 
obtain  a  tolerably  distinct  idea  of  the  contents  of  their  instruc- 
tions.    To  lose  English  Protestant  support  before  making  sure 


1  "Etle  meilleur  est,"  gleefully  writes  a  prominent  sympathizer  of  the 
League  at  Rome  to  a  friend  in  Paris,  "  que  cette  ambassade  s'est  faicte  sans 
aucun  respect  du  lieu  011  se  trouvoit  lors  ledit  cardinal,  mesmes  on  n'en  parla 
aucunement  audit  grand  due,  qui  est  le  plus  grand  affront  que  Ton  lui  pouvoit 
faire."  It  is  almost  needless  to  say  that  the  League  took  good  care  to  circulate 
the  letter  from  which  this  sentence  is  taken,  dated  Rome,  October  26,  1592, 
widely  throughout  France.  It  thus  found  its  way  into  the  Memoires  de  la 
Ligue,  v.  183-5.     See  also  De  Thou,  viii.  85-87  ;  Lestoile,  ii.  98. 


312  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND   HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.       Ch.  XIIL 

of  the  support  of  equally  powerful  Roman  Catholic  allies,  would 
indeed  be  both  a  misfortune  and  a  blunder.  With  unparalleled 
audacity  Henry  set  himself  to  the  task  of  deliberately  misin- 
forming his  "  dear  sister  "  and  "  best  friend."  It  was  a  sorry 
piece  of  business  for  the  victor  of  Coutras  and  Ivry  to  be  en- 
gaged in,  and  one  that  reveals,  perhaps,  better  than  any  other 
incident  the  fearful  decadence  of  his  moral  nature. 

Henry  did  not  deny  the  embassy  to  the  pope,  but  explained 
it,  and  asked  for  the  queen's  counsel.  The  zeal  of  his  partisans, 
he  said,  had  grown  somewhat  cool  through  the  length  of  the 
war,  while  the  pressure  of  his  enemies  was  ever  increasing  and 
well-nigh  overpowered  him.  Division  had  entered  his  own 
party.  The  ecclesiastics,  in  particular,  already  lukewarm  in 
their  devotion  because  of  his  religious  profession,  had  shown 
their  ill  will  to  such  a  degree  that  it  almost  seemed  as  though 
they  had  secretly  consented  to  the  choice  of  another  Catholic 
king,  for  which  his  enemies  were  just  now  making  preparations. 
In  these  circumstances  the  king  found  himself  compelled  to 
resume  negotiations,  and  to  promise  to  allow  himself  to  be  in- 
structed in  the  Catholic  religion;  the  more  so,  as  the  Grand 
Duke  of  Tuscany,  the  Senate  of  Venice,  and  other  allied  princes 
had  notified  him  that  they  would  no  longer  support  him,  as  tbey 
desired  to  do,  should  he  not  become  a  Catholic.  He  had  there- 
fore requested  Cardinal  Gondy  to  proceed  to  Rome,  and  had 
impressed  upon  him  his  own  ardent  desire  to  see  the  present 
unhappy  war  ended,  and  to  be  instructed  in  the  Catholic  re- 
ligion. He  had  not,  however,  concealed  the  fact  that  a  change 
of  religion  could  not  be  effected  in  an  instant,  since  his  present 
faith  had  been  implanted  and  nurtured  within  him  from 
his  youth  up.  Bouillon,  Pisany,  Schomberg,  and  Revol  had 
conferred  with  the  cardinal,  and  it  had  been  agreed  that  the 
latter  should  assure  the  pope,  as  of  his  own  motion  and  not 
empowered  by  the  king,  that  Henry  was  ready  to  be  instructed, 
if  onlv  the  necessary  time  were  granted  and  no  force 

His  intention  ^  _  _  ^  .  „  °  . 

to  remain       were  exerted.    "Meanwhile,    proceeds  the  document, 

constant.  .   -  .  .   .  „  ,  .  . 

with,  unblushing  eiironteiy,  "  the  queen  js  to  be  noti- 
fied that  it  is  the  kind's  intention  not  to  forsake  the  religion  of 
which  he  has  always  made,  as  he  now  still  makes,  profession  ; 


irm.  THE   ABJURATION.  313 

and  that,  in  order  to  protract  this  negotiation,  the  cardinal  will 
be  followed  by  the  Marquis  of  Pisany,  who  is  deputed  by 
the  nobles  of  the  kingdom.1  .  .  .  The  king  thinks  that  the 
path  which  he  intends  following  is  that  which  is  best  adapted  to 
enable  him  to  take  time  to  consider  and  provide  for  his  preser- 
vation. On  this  point  he  will  beg  the  queen  to  give  him  her 
counsel,  being  well  assured  that  she  will  not  refuse  it  to  him, 
and,  moreover,  that  she  would  not  advise  him  to  change  his 
religion,  or  to  do  anything  contrary  to  his  conscience."  2 

After  these  barefaced  falsehoods  the  envoy  was  instructed  to 
inform  the  queen  of  the  king's  intention  to  assemble  those  prel- 
ates and  ecclesiastics  of  his  realm  who  were  most  reasonable  and 
best  affected  to  his  service,  and  to  notify  them  of  his  intention 
to  be  instructed,  "  being  sure  that,  by  fine  promises,  words,  or 
otherwise,  he  will  protract  this  affair  as  much  as  he  may  wish ; 
so  that,  even  if  they  should  make  little  progress  in  their  design, 
nevertheless  they  will  content  foreign  princes,  the  ecclesiastics, 
and  the  people,  whose  ears  the  rumor  hereof  shall  reach,  with 
the  hope  they  will  conceive  of  success  in  gaining  over  the  king.3 
Meanwhile  his  majesty  will  gather  about  him  at  this  time  some 
of  the  most  learned  ministers  of  his  realm,  for  the  purpose  of 
inducing  them  to  confer  together  in  a  friendly  way  respecting 


1  "  Cependant  ladicte  Dame  sera  advertye  que  T intention  dudict  Seigneur 
Roy  est  de  ne  se  departir  de  la  religion  de  laquelle  il  a  tousjours  faict,  comme 
il  faict  encores  profession,  et  que  pour  faire  traisner  ceste  negotiation  en 
longueur  ledict  Sieur  Cardinal  seroyt  [suivy]  du  Sieur  Marquis  de  Pizany, 
lequel  de  la  part  de  la  Noblesse  de  ce  Roiaulme  doibt  supplier  respectueuse- 
ment  le  Pere  commun  de  trouver  bon,"  etc. 

2  "II  a  pense  que  la  voye  de  laquelle  il  se  voulloit  servir  estoyt  la  plus 
propre,  pour  cependant  adviser  et  pourvoyer  a  sa  conservation  ;  a  quoy  il  sup- 
pliera  ladicte  Dame  de  luy  donner  son  advis,  s'asseurant  quelle  ne  le  luy  re- 
fusera  et  ne  luy  voudroit  aussy  conseiller  de  changer  de  religion  ny  de  rien 
faire  contre  sa  conscience." 

3  "Leur  faire  entendre  que  sa  resolution  est  de  se  faire  instruire  en  la  re- 
ligion catholicque,  s'asseurant  que  par  belles  promesses,  parolles  ou  aultrement 
faire  traisner  en  telle  longueur  qu'il  voudra,  leur  faisant  bon  visage  ou  leur 
faisant  dons,  de  sorte  qu'encor  qu'ils  advancent  peu  en  leur  desseing,  neant- 
moings  ils  contenteront  les  princes  estrangers,"  etc.  The  characteristic  clause 
which  I  have  italicized  is  omitted  by  Stahelin,  but  has  every  appearance  of 
authenticity. 


314     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cu.  XIIL 

such  difficulties  as  may  arise.  By  means  of  such  conferences  he 
will  be  able  in  time  to  gain  something  from  both  parties,  and 
by  gentleness  he  will  reconcile  minds  alienated  by  reason  of 
wars."  1 

"Whether  purposely  or  by  accident,  Henry,  in  his  attempt  to 
deceive  his  English  ally,  sketched  an  alluring  prospect  much 
resembling  that  which  Duplessis  Mornay  had  been  fruitlessly 
endeavoring  to  realize,  but  he  did  it  only  to  conceal  his  true 
intentions.  Nor  is  it  astonishing  that  Duplessis  Mornay  should 
have  been  duped  as  to  his  masters  designs,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  the  quick-witted  Queen  of  England,  more  remote  from  the 
scene  of  action  and  therefore  better  situated  for  taking  a  calm 
and  dispassionate  view,  was  completely  hoodwinked.2  The 
envoy  was  in  fact  surprised  at  his  own  success  in  convincing 
Queen  Elizabeth.  "  She  felt  great  pleasure,''  he  noted  down  at 
a  subsequent  time,  "  when  I  explained  to  her  what  I  had  been 
commissioned  to  tell  her.  Only,"  he  adds,  with  pardonable  bit- 
terness, "something  occurred,  a  year  thereafter,  which  made 
me  appear  to  be  a  liar,  to  be  sure  through  no  fault  of  my  own." 

Meanwhile  the  clamor  of  the  French  people  fur  peace  became 
loud  and  could  not  be  suppressed.  It  found  an  utterance  in 
The  Parisians  a  proposition,  made  in  a  general  municipal  meeting, 
for  peace.  j^  \n  the  Hotel  de  Ville  of  the  capital  on  the 
twenty-sixth  of  October,  to  send  a  deputation  to  the  "King 
Navarre  "to  treat  with  him  the  terms  of  an  arrangement  of 


1  MS.  in  Collection  Dupuy,  National  Library  at  Pari?,  t.  152,  entitled 
moire  au  Sieur  du  Maurier,  despesche  par  le  Roy  vers  la  Reyne  dWngleterre 
et  le  sieur  de  Lomenie,  son  ambassadeur  pres  d'elle."  Tbis  important  docu- 
ment bas  been  printed  by  Prince  Galitzin,  Lettres  inedites  de  Henri  IV.  (Paris, 
1860),  94-98,  and  by  D'Ouvre  among  tbe  pieces  justificatives  appended  to  bis 
life  of  Du  Maurier.  Dr  Stabelin  gives  a  summary  and  some  extracts.  Ueber- 
tritt  Konig  Heinricbs  des  Vierten.  484-6. 

2  The  remark  is  that  of  Dr.  Stabelin.     Ibid.,  48T. 

3  D'Ouvre,  apud  Stabelin,  487. — Tbis  seems  to  prove  tbat  Prince  Galitzin  i^ 
quite  wrong  in  placing  tbe  "  Instruction  "  (wbich,  unfortunately,  is  not  dated 
in  the  manuscript)  so  late  as  May,  1593.  Although  the  editor  of  the  supple- 
mentary volumes  of  the  Lettres  missives  de  Henri  IV.  evidently  intended  to 
insert  the  document  (see  ix.  155,  note),  I  have  looked  in  vain  for  it  in  his 
pages. 


1592.  THE   ABJURATION.  315 

some  sort.  For  such  a  negotiation,  however,  the  Duke  of 
Mayenne  was  not  jet  ready.  It  suited  his  purpose  better  to 
await  the  convocation  of  the  states  general  which  had  been 
summoned,  in  the  interests  of  the  League,  to  meet  in  the  city  of 
Paris ;  for  he  cherished  the  vain  hope  that  after  all  the  ambi- 
tion of  the  Spaniard  might  be  disappointed,  and  the  coveted 
crown  might  yet  be  placed  upon  his  own  head.  Consequently 
he  rebuked  the  city  for  having  ventured,  in  his  absence,  to  en- 
tertain a  motion  diametrically  opposed  to  the  oath  that  had 
been  taken,  and  advised  the  impatient  burghers  to  await  the 
issue  of  the  approaching  conference  between  the  representa- 
tives of  the  whole  nation.1  Plucking  up  courage,  he  even  made 
use  of  this  event  as  an  occasion  for  endeavoring  to  seduce  the 
Koman  Catholic  followers  of  Henry  from  their  allegiance.  The 
lengthy  appeal  which  the  duke  put  forth  in  the  month  of  De- 
cember, 1592,  was  followed,  on  the  fifteenth  of  the 
the  legate  ap-  next  month,  by  an  equally  prolix  "  Exhortation  "  to 
loyai  Roman  the  same  effect,  emanating  from  the  Cardinal  Legate  of 
Piacenza,  who,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  had  proved 
himself  no  unworthy  successor  of  Pope  Sixtus's  rebellious  envoy, 
Cardinal  Cajetan.2  Neither  the  layman  nor  the  ecclesiastic 
spared  the  piety  of  Roman  Catholics,  who,  while  they  professed 
subjection  to  the  pope,  continued,  in  defiance  of  his  anathemas, 
to  follow  the  fortunes  of  the  heretic.  The  legate,  indeed,  waxed 
hot  in  his  denunciations,  not  respecting  in  his  inconsiderate 
passion  even  those  immemorial  liberties  of  the  French  eccles- 
iastical system  which,  on  the  northern  side  of  the  Alps,  were 
regarded  as  the  very  stronghold  of  defence  against  papal  usur- 
pation. "By  your  discord  and  connivance,"  he  exclaimed, 
"you  have  suffered  heresy  to  gain  such  foothold  that  it  no 
longer  asks,  as  heretofore,  the  favor  of  enjoying  impunity,  but 


1  "  Response  faicte  par  le  due  de  Mayenne  en  l'assemblee  generale  tenue  en 
la  maison  de  ville  de  Paris,  le  jeudi  6  Novembre,  sur  la  proposition  de  paix 
conclue  en  son  absence,  et  depuis  ce  26  Octobre  ; "  reprinted  in  Memoires  de 
la  Ligue.  v.  187. 

2  Any  one  curious  to  plod  through  these  documents  may  peruse  them  in  the 
Memoires  de  la  Ligue — the  "Declaration"  of  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  v.  283- 
294,  and  the  "  Exhortation  "  of  the  legate,  v.  312-323. 


316  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND   HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.       Oh.  XIII. 

begins  to  punish,  how  cruelly  every  one  knows,  those  who,  being 
more  solicitous  for  their  salvation,  refuse  to  submit  to  its  yoke. 
Strange  and  unfortunate  change,  that  makes  you  detest  as  an 
extreme  vice  what  you  yourselves  have  taught  others  to  be  an 
excellent  virtue,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  makes  you  crown  the 
same  crime  which  you  ought  still  to-day  to  condemn  to  the  fire, 
as  you  did  in  the  past.  Such  is  the  power  of  the  deadly  poison 
of  heresy,  whose  contagion  has  engendered  those  many  absurd- 
ities and  contradictions  which,  if  you  will  but  lay  your  hand 
upon  your  conscience,  you  dare  not  deny  prevail  among  you. 
Tor,  to  venture  to  maintain  that  the  privileges  and  liberties  of 
the  Gallican  Church  extend  so  far  as  to  permit  one  to  recognise 
as  king  a  relapsed  heretic,  who  has  been  cut  off  from  the  body 
of  the  Church  Universal,  is  a  frenzied  dream  proceeding  from 
no  other  source  than  from  heretical  contagion."  ' 

It  was  in  these  circumstances  that  a  thought  presented  itself 
to  the  minds  of  two  of  the  king's  most  sincere  and  trusty  ser- 
vants, which  was  destined  in  the  end  to  bring  the  present  critical 
condition  of  affairs  to  an  unexpected  issue.  The  Duke  of  May- 
enne  had  invited  the  princes  and  nobles  who  followed  the 
king's  fortunes  to  confer  with  those  who  had  thrown  in  their 
lot  with  the  League,  at  the  meeting  of  the  pretended  st 
general  in  the  city  of  Paris.  Why  not  take  advantage  of  the 
professed  willingness  to  discuss  the  matters  in  dispute  ?  AVhv 
not  respond  by  a  counter-invitation,  which  the  duke  and  his 
partisans  could  not  decline  without  clearly  exposing  themselves 
to  the  charge  of  insincerity?  The  time  had  come  when  the 
danger  menacing  France  no  longer  came  from  the  League,  but 
from  the  Spaniard.  That  danger  must  be  conjured,  peace  must 
be  restored  by  the  united  efforts  of  both  parties.     So 

Schomberg  1*1  1    -i      «   1  1  . 

and  De  Thou  thought  Gaspard  de  Schomberg  and  his  bosom  friend, 
peace  con-      the  future  historian  Jacques  Augustede  Thou.     Tliev 

ference. 

consequently  requested  the  king  to  lend  his  sanction 
to  a  conference,  to  be  held  in  some  neutral  place  outside  of  Pa- 
ris, where  the  royalist  nobles  might  ask  their  brethren  in  the 
other  camp  to  meet  them.     Their  words  were  eloquent,  their 

1  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  316. 


1593.  THE  ABJURATION.  317 

plea  for  peace  was  forcible  and  coincident  with  the  desires  of 
their  royal  auditor.  There  could  be  no  doubt  whither  their 
arguments  tended  ;  for  a  conference  that  offered  to  the  king's 
rebellious  subjects  no  guarantees  of  an  approaching  renunciation 
of  Protestantism  would  have  been  worse  than  futile.  But 
Henry  of  Bourbon  did  not  draw  back  from  the  meeting  at 
which  the  bargain  must  be  sealed.  He  had,  indeed,  some  words 
to  say  in  reply  about  his  faith  and  his  convictions,  words  much 
like  those  he  had  uttered  many  times  before,  and  accompanied 
by  the  usual  profession  of  a  teachable  mind.  "  Men  reproach 
me  with  my  religion,"  he  said  ;  "  but  you  know  that  I  am  not 
obstinately  attached  to  it.  If  I  am  in  error,  let  those  who  at- 
tack me  with  so  much  fury  instruct  me  and  show  me  the  path 
of  safety."  ' 

The  invitation  sent  by  "  the  princes,  prelates,  officers  of  the 
erown,  and  chief  Catholic  lords,  as  well  of  the  council  of  the 
invitation  of  king  as  others  being  near  his  majesty,"  has  come  down 
nobie7ali8t  to  us>  and  *s  an  instructive  document.  Adopted  in 
the  presence  of  Henry  in  the  city  of  Chartres,  on  the 
twenty-seventh  of  January,  1593,  it  was  carried  the  next  day 
to  Paris  by  a  royal  herald.  The  writer  skilfully  took  advantage 
of  the  situation.  He  made  the  princes  express  their  hearty  ac- 
cord with  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  in  the  sentiments  he  had  ut- 
tered in  his  recent  declaration,  respecting  the  disastrous  results 
sure  to  flow  from  the  continuation  of  the  war,  not  only  to  the 
material  interests  of  the  kingdom,  but  to  the  Catholic  religion 
itself.  Only  the  restoration  of  peace  would  repair  the  losses 
sustained  by  the  cities,  re-establish  commerce  and  the  arts  and 
trades  by  which  the  people  are  nourished,  give  fresh  life  to 


1  "  On  m'objecte  ma  religion  ;  mais  vous  scavez  que  je  n'y  suis  pas  attache 
-avec  obstination.  Si  je  suis  dans  l'erreur,  que  ceux  qui  m'attaquent  avec  tant 
de  fureur,  m'instruisent,  et  me  montrentla  voye  du  salut."  De  Thou  (who  is 
our  best  authority),  viii.  212.  See  however,  also,  Davila,  587,  588,  who  gives 
as  one  of  the  reasons  why  a  plan  looking  so  directly  toward  abjuration  came 
■to  be  adopted  by  Henry,  the  significant  circumstance  that  'k  the  Sieur  du 
Plessis  [Mornay]  was  far  off,  who,  with  his  reasons,  partly  theological,  para- 
political, was  wont  to  withhold  him  and  put  scruples  in  his  mind,  to  the  end 
he  might  not  change  his  religion." 


318  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.        Ch.  XIII. 

the  universities  and  the  other  schools  of  learning,  former] 
flourishing  and  a  source  of  splendor  and  renown  to  the  realm, 
but  now  in  a  languishing  and  moribund  condition  ;  only  the  re- 
turn of  peace  would  secure  cultivation  for  the  fields  which,  in- 
stead of  yielding,  as  of  old,  fruits  meet  for  the  sustenance  of 
man,  lay  fallow  or  were  covered  with  a  hideous  growth  of  thorns 
and  thistles.  The  princes  therefore  accepted  the  proposition  of 
the  duke,  and  signified  their  willingness  to  confer,  by  means  of 
deputies,  with  such  "  good  and  worthy  personages  "  as  the  ad- 
herents of  the  League  might  be  pleased  to  select.  They  sug- 
gested, however,  that  the  place  for  the  colloquy,  instead  of  the 
capital,  should  be  some  spot  between  Paris  and  Saint  Denis. 
But  if  the  advances  now  made  should  be  rejected,  if  the  way  of 
conciliation  should  be  rejected  and  other  ways  pernicious  to  re- 
ligion and  to  the  state  should  be  chosen,  and  if  France  should, 
in  consequence,  be  brought  to  the  extremity  of  ruin  and  mi- 
a  prey  to  the  greed  and  covetousness  of  the  Spaniards  and  a 
monument  of  the  triumph  of  their  insolence — if  all  these  dis- 
asters should  be  brought  about  by  the  hands  and  the  blind 
passions  of  men  bearing  the  name  of  Frenchmen,  degenerate 
sons  of  honorable  ancestors,  they  protested  that  the  blame  inu>t 
not  rest  upon  the  royalists,  but  upon  those  whose  refusal  would 
prove  that  they  preferred  the  measures  that  might  serve  t«>  ad- 
vance their  own  greatness  and  selfish  ambition  above  the  means 
for  the  promotion  of  God's  honor  and  the  salvation  of  the  realm.1 
Two  days  after  the  publication  of  the  "  Proposition  "  of  the 
princes,  Henry  put  forth  his  own  answer  to  the  Duke  of 
Henr  's an-  Mayenne's  manifesto,  with  the  intention  of  strength- 
ewer  to  May-    en[Ug-  the  courage  of  that  growing  party  within  the 

enne's  mam-  o  o  or. 

festo.  League  which,  with  daily  increasing  distinctness, 

declaring  itself  favorable  to  reconciliation  and  peace.3     On  the 
one  hand,  his  majesty  denounced   the  League  as  nothing  else 


1  "Proposition  des  Princes,   Prelats,  Officiers  de  la  Couronne  et  principaux 
Seigneurs  Catholiques,  tant  du  Conseil  du  Roy,  qu'autres estans  pre?  M  Ma 
reprinted  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,   v.   304-307,  and  in  Cayet,   Chronologic 
novenaire,  423,  424.     Also  in  Davila  (book  13),  585,  586. 

2  "Declaration  duRoy  sur  les  impostures  et  fausses  inductions contenues  en 
un  escrit  public  sous  le  nom  du  Due  de  Mayenne,"  dated  Chartres,  January 


1593.  THE  ABJURATION.  319 

than  a  plot  against  the  royal  authority,  and  ridiculed  the  pre- 
tension that  the  fundamental  law  had  been  changed  by  Henry 
the  Third's  declaration  at  the  States  of  Blois,  in  1588.  "  It  is 
the  province  of  the  laws,"  said  he,  "  and  not  of  kings  to  fix 
the  succession  to  the  throne ;  not  to  mention  that  the  states 
themselves  acted,  not  with  free  deliberation,  but  as  open  con- 
spirators, and  that  Henry  the  Third's  declaration  was  extorted 
from  him  by  violence."  On  the  other  hand,  the  monarch  re- 
iterated, with  more  emphasis  than  ever  before,  his  intention  to 
gratify  the  expectations  of  his  Roman  Catholic  subjects  in  the 
matter  of  religion.  The  most  careless  reader  could  see  the 
word  "  abjuration  "  written  under  sifch  expressions  as  these : 
"  We  shall  never  fail  to  make  known  that  we  have  no  obstinacy, 
and  that  we  are  quite  prepared  to  receive  all  good  instruction  and 
to  submit  ourselves  to  what  God  shall  counsel  us  as  being  for  our 
welfare  and  salvation."  Yet,  even  when  about  to  perform  so 
immoral  an  act  as  the  insincere  renunciation  of  the  religious 
creed  in  which  he  had  been  educated  from  his  earliest  years, 
Henry  could  not  allow  the  opportunity  to  pass  without  indulg- 
ing in  a  phrase  or  two  of  lofty  sentiment.  And  thus  it  hap- 
pens that,  in  the  light  of  the  farce  enacted,  less  than  six  months 
later,  at  Mantes  and  Saint  Denis,  under  the  title  of  a  conversion, 
the  king's  own  words  constitute  the  most  bitter  censure  of  his 
unprincipled  deed,  and  a  prophecy  of  the  harvest  of  hypocrisy 
and  scepticism  sown  by  that  act  in  the  courtiers  whom  he  in- 
duced to  copy  his  example.     "  It  must  not  be  deemed 

His  view  of  a  *i  /-><      -i      -i  •  -i   •  •  c    l  •  i 

heartless  con-  strange  by  all  our  Catholic  subjects,  it,  having  been 

version.  _    .         -  _,     .  -i-it  -n 

nurtured  in  the  religion  we  now  hold,  we  are  unwill- 
ing to  abandon  it  without  first  having  been  instructed,  and  be- 
fore  it  has  been  proved  to  us  that  the  religion  which  they  desire 
in  us  is  the  better  and  the  more  certain  religion.  This  instruc- 
tion in  good  form  is  the  more  necessary  in  us,  as  the  example  of 
our  conversion  would  conduce  much  to  influence  others.  More- 
over, it  would  be  to  err  in  the  first  principles  of  religion  and  to 


29,  1593.  Text  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  295-304,  and  Cayet,  425-429. 
See  also  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  759,  760,  Lestoile,  ii.  115,  De  Thou, 
viii.  213-218. 


320  THE   HUGUENOTS   AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.       Cii   XIII. 

show  that  we  had  no  religion,  were  we  to  consent,  in  answer  to  a 
simple  summons,  to  change  ours,  with  so  precious  a  matter  at 
stake  as  the  answer  to  the  question,  Whereupon  must  a  man 
found  his  hope  of  salvation  ?  "  ' 

Great  was  the  consternation  of  the  leaders  at  Paris.     Great 
was  their  embarrassment  in  deciding  how  to  deal  with  the  pro- 
posal of  the  loyal  Roman  Catholics.'     The  more  extreme  were 
in  favor  of  taking  no  notice  of  it  whatever.     The  legate  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  his  intemperate  conduct.     He 

Embarrass-  °  .  J  . l  . 

mentofthe  rose  up  in  great  anger,  exclaiming  that  the  princes 
proposition  was  full  of  heresies,  and  those  were  here- 
tics that  should  take  it  into  consideration.  It  was  therefore 
fitting,  he  maintained,  that  no  answer  should  be  returned.  Car- 
dinal Pelleve  and  Ibarra,  the  Spanish  ambassador,  were  of  the 
same  opinion.  Not  so,  however,  with  the  rest.  Yilleroy  and 
President  Jeannin  insisted  that  a  message  brought  to  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  three  orders  could  not  be  rejected  without  a 
reference  to  the  states  general.  The  Duke  of  Mayenne,  whom 
the  recent  conduct  both  of  Philip  the  Second  and  of  the  pope 
had  not  been  calculated  to  conciliate,  was  quite  willing  to  thwart 
the  purposes  of  the  Spanish  and  pontifical  envoys,  while  he 
still  retained  the  external  semblance  of  deference  to  the  wishes 
of  his  august  allies.  Nor  was  his  good  humor  restored  by  the 
visit  which  he  thought  fit  to  make  to  the  Duke  of  Feria  and 
Dispute  be-  Inigo  de  Mendoza,  at  Soissons.  For  the  ambassadors 
enneliSldthe  lllsisted  much  upon  the  necessity  of  at  once  electing 
Duke  of  Feria.  tiie  lnfanta  queen  of  France,  but  had  no  authority  to 
assist  the  cause  of  the  League  with  more  than  the  paltry  sum  of 
twenty-five  thousand  ducats;  while  the  troops  brought  by  Count 
Charles  of  Mansfelt  amounted  to  only  four  thousand  foot  and 


1  "  Ce  seroit  aussi  errer  aux  principes  de  religion,  et  montrer  n'en  avoir 
point,  que  de  vouloir,  sous  une  simple  semonce,  nous  iaire  changer  la  nostre, 
y  allant  de  chose  si  precieuse,  que  de  ce  en  quoi  il  faut  fonder  l'esperance  de 
salut." 

'2  De  Thou  gives  a  brief  statement  of  the  arguments  employed  on  botli  side? 
Davila's    account  of  the   scene   when  the   letter   of   the  royalist  prince-  iraa 
brought  to  the  small  council  summoned  by  the  Duke  of  Mayenne.  then  ill,  to 
his  bedroom  to  hear  it,  is  animated  and  interesting,  book  13,  5So,  588,  etc. 


1593.  THE   ABJURATION.  321 

one  thousand  horse.  To  make  up  for  the  meagreness  of  the 
present  support,  the  Spaniards  dwelt  at  length  upon  the  future 
munificence  of  Philip,  who,  when  once  his  daughter  should  be 
well  seated  on  the  throne,  would  give  her  fifty  thousand  foot 
and  ten  thousand  horse,  and  lavish  all  the  treasure  of  his  king- 
dom to  secure  her  success.  When  Mavenne  ur^ed  the  necessitv 
of  coating  that  bitter  pill,  the  violation  of  the  Salic  law,  to  render 
it  palatable  to  the  French  states  general,  Mendoza  had  the 
effrontery  to  declare  that  it  was  notorious  that  all  the  deputies 
would  not  only  accept  the  Infanta,  but  would  beg  Philip  to  grant 
her  to  be  their  queen ;  indeed,  that  Mavenne  was  the  only  per- 
son who  opposed  the  universal  desire.  This  was  too  much  for 
the  pride  of  the  ambitious  Frenchman.  He  informed  Mendoza, 
for  all  reply,  that  he  knew  nothing  about  the  affairs  of  France 
if  he  supposed  that  the  Spaniards  could  manage  its  deputies  as 
they  were  accustomed  to  govern  the  senseless  Indians.  The  de- 
bate soon  degenerated  into  an  unseemly  altercation,  Feria  telling 
Mavenne  that  the  Spaniards  would  assume  the  command  of  the 
army  and  intrust  it  to  the  Duke  of  Guise ;  while  Mayenne,  in 
a  towering  rage,  declared  that  he  had  it  in  his  power  to  turn  all 
France  against  the  Spaniards,  and,  if  he  pleased,  to  shut  them 
out  of  the  kingdom  in  a  single  week.  Feria  and  Mendoza,  he 
said,  were  playing  the  parts  rather  of  ambassadors  of  "  the  King 
of  Navarre "  than  of  the  Catholic  King,  and  could  not  have 
done  Henry  better  service,  had  they  been  paid  by  him.  As  for 
himself,  he  was  not  yet  their  subject,  and,  judging  from  the 
usage  he  had  received  at  their  hands,  it  was  very  unlikely  he 

ever  would  be  such.1  However,  Mayenne  was  too 
terms  with      valuable  an  ally  to  the  Spaniards,  and  the  Spaniards 

were  likely  to  be  too  indispensable  to  Mayenne,  that 
the  two  parties  should  so  abruptly  part  company.  By  the  next 
morning  the  duke  had  thought  better  of  the  matter,  and  with 
the  help  of  skilful  intermediaries  a  hollow  reconciliation  was 
effected. 2  In  return  for  his  solemn  promise,  to  secure,  by  all 
honorable  means  in  his  power,  the  election  of  the  Infanta  Dona 

1  Davila  (book  13),  591-594. 

2  Ibid.,  597  ;  De  Thou,  viii.  220. 
Vol.  II.— 21 

•      \ 


322     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIIL 

Isabella  by  the  states  general,  Mayenne,  than  whom  there  was 
no  negotiator  of  the  period  more  proficient  in  the  art  of  provid- 
ing for  future  emergencies,  stipulated  for,  and  obtained  from 
Feria,  terms  as  large  as  the  demands  with  which  he  had,  a  }-ear 
before,  startled  Duplessis  Mornay.  The  Spanish  ambassador 
engaged,  in  the  name  of  his  master,  that  the  Dnke  of  Mayenne 
should  receive  the  Duchy  of  Burgundy,  with  all  its  revenues,  as 
an  hereditary  possession  to  be  transmitted  in  the  male  line  to  his 
descendants,  the  crown  reserving  for  itself  only  a  claim  to  bare 
sovereignty.  He  was  to  have  an  income  of  two  hundred  thou- 
sand crowns  from  the  revenues  of  other  provinces,  to  be  put  in 
possession  of  the  government  of  Normandy,  to  obtain  the  dis- 
charge of  all  the  debts  he  had  contracted  in  the  service  of  France 
and  its  new  queen,  to  derive  another  sum  of  two  hundred  thou- 
sand crowns  from  Philip's  funds,  a  third  sum  of  twice  that 
amount  from  the  Infanta,  to  be  lieutenant-general  until  the 
coming  of  the  princess,  and,  after  that  event,  one  of  the  greatest 
dignitaries  of  state.  On  these  conditions,  with  no  less  than  two 
additional  provisions  for  the  further  replenishment  of  his  insa- 
tiate pocket,  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  declared  himself  forever 
satisfied.  It  must  be  confessed  that  he  would  have  been  hard 
to  please  had  he  required  more.1 

The  discussion  of  the  proposition  of  the  princes  of  Henry's 
party  by  the  states  general  of  the  League  soon  showed  the 
The  League  temper  of  the  people.  Had  the  deputies  themselves 
agrTesT^the  been  lukewarm,  the  Parliament  of  Paris  would  have 
conference.  arouse(j  them  by  a  protest ;  had  neither  states  nor  par- 
liament been  attentive  to  the  signs  of  the  times,  the  miserable 
inhabitants  of  the  capital,  harassed  by  a  state  of  partial  siege 
that  had  already  lasted  three  years,  would  have  broken  out  in 
open  revolt.  Even  the  legate  was  brought  to  recognize  the 
necessity  of  yielding  to  the  overwhelming  force  of  public  senti- 
ment, which  already  condemned  him  for  inordinate  deference  to 


1  "Copie  de  la  Promesse  que  le  Due  de  Feria  a  faite  au  Due  de  Mayenne 
relativement  aux  interets  particuliers  de  celui-ci  et  Promesse  du  Due  de  May- 
enne," Soissons,  February,  1593,  in  De  Croze,  Les  Guises,  les  Valois  et  Philippe 
II.,  ii.  410-414. 


159a  THE  ABJURATION.  323 

the  Spaniard.  Finally  an  answer  was  drawn  up,  on  the  fourth 
of  March,  in  the  name  of  Mayenne,  and  of  the  princes,  prelates, 
and  deputies.  Montmartre,  St.  Maur,  and  the  queen's  house 
at  Chaillot  were  suggested  as  places  at  any  one  of  which  royalist 
and  Leaguer  might  meet  for  a  consideration  of  the  present  un- 
happy state  of  France.1  In  the  end,  none  of  these  localities  was 
chosen,  but  the  quiet  village  of  Suresnes,  on  the  other  bank  of 
the  Seine,  was  selected,  and  the  month  of  April  was  appointed 
as  the  time.2 

Meanwhile  the  states  general  summoned  by  the  League,  with 
the  full  approval  of  the  Papal  See,  had  been  for  several  months 
nominally  sitting  in  the  castle  of  the  Louvre.     Opened  on  the 
twenty-sixth  of  January,  with  an  attendance  of  deputies  con- 
trasting: very  disadvantageous! y  with  previous  assem- 

The  6tates  - 

general  of  the  blies  held  under  royal  sanction,  this  body,  on  account 
of  Mayenne's  absence  from  the  city,  deferred  its  second 
formal  session  until  the  second  of  April.  It  is  not  within  the 
province  of  this  history  to  detail  the  acts  of  a  well-known  con- 
vocation, whose  most  salient  features  have  been  held  up  to  im- 
mortal ridicule  in  the  wonderfully  acute  descriptions  of  the 
"  Satyre  Menippee."  The  Spaniards  had  anticipated  an  easy 
triumph  by  means  of  this  assembly,  convened  in  imitation  of 
the  ancient  representative  bodies  of  the  French  people.  In  the 
second  session  the  Duke  of  Feria  extolled  to  the  skies  the  dis- 
interestedness of  his  master,  from  whom  he  presented  a  letter 
addressed  to  the  states  themselves ;  but  he  went  no  farther  than 
to  express  the  hope  entertained  by  Philip,  that  a  king  would  be 
elected  both  zealous  in  the  matter  of  religion  and  sufficiently 
powerful  to  secure  France  from  her  enemies.  Cardinal  Pelleve 
replied  in  a  prolix  speech  still  more  laudatory  of  the  Catholic 
king  and  of  his  achievements.     In  the  peroration  he  pictured 

1  Text  of  the  answer  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  308-312,  and  Davila,  597- 
599.     See  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  760 ;  De  Thou,  viii.  220-222. 

2  Montmartre,  on  the  north,  and  Chaillot,  on  the  west,  have,  within  the  pres- 
ent generation,  been  absorbed  in  the  City  of  Paris.  St.  Maur  lies  beyond 
Charenton,  in  a  curve  of  the  Marne.  Suresnes  is  situated  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  Seine,  just  west  of  the  capital,  opposite  the  Bois  de  Boulogne  and  Long- 
champs,  and  barely  two  miles  north  of  St.  Cloud. 


324  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND   HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.        Ch.  XIII. 

Philip,  at  the  close  of  his  mortal  course,  rewarded  for  his  vir- 
tues and  enjoying  the  beatific  vision  of  God,  in  company  with 
the  spirits  of  the  blessed.  "  Into  whose  tabernacles,  when  he 
shall  have  been  raised  by  the  hand  of  God,  the  Rewarder  of 
the  pains  and  labors  he  has  undergone  for  religion's  sake,  not 
only  will  there  come  to  meet  him  a  thousand  of  thousands  of 
angels,  who  wait  upon  and  serve  the  King  of  kings ;  but,  in 
addition,  an  infinite  number  of  people  whom  he  has  rescued, 
some  from  the  thick  darkness  of  infidelity,  others  from  the  ob- 
stinacy and  wickedness  of  their  heresies,  will  present  them- 
selves to  him  with  gladness,  bearing  in  their  hands  crowns 
which  will  add  fresh  lustre  to  the  crown  prepared  for  him  by 
God." ' 

But  when  it  came  to  practical  results,  the  Spaniards,  as  well 

as  the  legate,  had  disappointment  in  store  for  them.     A  spark 

of  the  old  spirit  of  national  feeling  still  burned  in  the 

The  decrees  of  _    . .      _  .  .  .  ,   . 

Trent  under    breasts  ot  the  deputies.     A  commission,  appointed  by 

discussion.  ,  ,  ,  r      i        s> 

the  states  to  examine  into  the  decrees  or  the  Coun- 
cil of  Trent,  whose  reception  in  France  was  again  pressed  by 
the  pope,  reported  that  they  found  them  to  be  in  conflict  with 
the  laws  and  usages  of  the  kingdom,  and  with  the  prescrip- 
tions of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  and  the  liberties  of  the  Gal- 
lican  Church.  It  was  a  significant  circumstance  that,  of  the 
two  commissioners  who  drew  up  a  document  fatal  to  the  pre- 
tensions of  Rome,  one  was  the  first  president  of  the  Parliament 
of  Paris,  Jean  Le  Maistre,  who  had  been  elevated  to  office  by 
the  Duke  of  Mayenne  himself.3  A  month  later,  the  same  spirit 
of  opposition  to  foreign  interference  exhibited  itself  in  another 
and  very  unexpected  quarter.  A  conference  was  held  at  the 
palace  of  the  papal  legate,  to  which  none  but  persons  of  unques- 
tioned zeal  for  the  League  were  invited.  Each  of  the  three 
orders  was  represented  by  two  delegates.  The  Archbishop  of 
Lyons  and  Rose,  Bishop  of  Senlis,  were  there  for  the  clergy. 


1  The  Duke  of  Feria's  speech  is  given  in  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  341- 
345,  Philip  the  Second's  letter,  ibid.,  v.  345,  346,  and  Cardinal  Pelleve's  reply, 
ibid.,  v.  346-353. 

*  De  Thou,  viii.  (book  105)  231-236. 


1593.  THE   ABJURATION.  325 

In  this  select  company  the  Duke  of  Feria  made  bold  to  propose 
openly  the  election  of  the  Infanta,  daughter  of  Elizabeth  of 
France,  and  granddaughter  of  Henry  the  Second  and  Catha- 
rine de'  Medici.  He  declared  that  his  master,  who  had  already 
spent  six  million  gold  crowns  in  defence  of  Roman  Catholicism 
in  France,  would  send  in  the  early  autumn,  in  addition  to  the 
army  of  ten  thousand  men  now  on  the  frontier,  a  second  force 
of  equal  size,  not  to  speak  of  subsidies  for  French  troops.  It 
was  then  that,  to  the  amazement  of  all  present,  the  Bishop  of 
Senlis  broke  out  upon  the  Duke  of  Feria  with  rough 

The  Bishop  of  *,    .  .  .    ,         . 

senlis  on  span- words.     "Ihe  I  olitiques,     said  he,  "  were  right  in 

ish  ambition.  ...  ,..  tit 

maintaining  that  your  ambition  was  covered  by  the 
cloak  of  religion.  In  conjunction  wTith  the  other  preachers,  ani- 
mated by  a  true  zeal  for  the  Holy  Union,  I  have  been  trying 
to  refute  their  statements.  Now  I  learn,  from  what  you  have 
just  advanced,  that  what  I  took  to  be  calumnies  invented  by 
the  sectaries  are  the  true  sentiments  and  views  of  the  Span- 
iards. For  twelve  hundred  years  the  Salic  law  has  been  in 
force  in  France.  If  this  venerable  law  be  infringed  by  plac- 
ing a  woman  upon  the  throne,  must  we  not  fear  that  the  sceptre 
may  through  her  pass  into  the  hands  of  a  stranger,  and  that 
a  monarchy  which  owes  its  glory  and  power  to  an  inviolable 
law  may  in  the  sequel  be  brought  to  nothingness  ?  "  '  The  states 
general  did  not  go  so  far  as  this,  for  if  they  declined  the  proposi- 
tion of  the  Spaniards  to  elect  the  Archduke  Ernest  of  Austria 
king  of  France,  with  the  Infanta  as  his  consort,  and  warned 
them  that  the  French  nobles  would  never  accept  a  foreigner  as 
their  monarch,  they  formally  requested  that  the  Infanta  marry 
a  French  prince,  who  should  thereupon  be  elected  to  the  vacant 
throne.2  But  the  Parliament  of  Paris  grewT  daily  more  out- 
spoken in  its  resistance  to  Spain  and  to  Spain's  am- 

Pre6ident  Le       *    .  .  *  l  . 

Maistre's        bitious  designs.     Jbmally,  on    the   twenty-eighth   or 

manly  protest.    x  .  *?.  J  \  .  -,      -,       .  „ 

June,  it  published  a  formal  resolution  declaring  null 
and  void  any  treaty  or  convention,  made  or  to  be  made,  con- 
trary to  the  Salic  law,  or  for  the  election  of  a  foreign  prince 

1  De  Thou,  viii.  265.     The  conference  took  place  May  20,  1593. 

2  Ibid.,  275,  276. 


326  THE  HUGUENOTS   AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.        Ch    XIII. 

or  princess.  Nor  did  President  Le  Maistre,  whom  the  judges 
deputed  to  carry  the  paper  to  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  fail  to 
fortify  their  position  by  pertinent  reference  to  former  mi. -haps 
to  France  arising  from  female  domination — to  the  seditions 
and  civil  wars  caused,  under  the  first  race  of  kings,  by  Frede- 
gonde  and  Brunehaut ;  to  the  troubles  occasioned,  under  the 
second  race,  by  Judith,  wife  of  Louis  le  Debonnaire  ;  to  the  dis- 
quiet of  the  regency  of  Blanche,  mother  of  Saint  Louis.  ;*  Fi- 
nally," said  he,  "  we  still  remember  with  horror  the  bloody 
tragedies  of  which  France  was  the  theatre  under  Catharine  de' 
Medici."  '  When  subsequently  summoned  by  the  Duke  of  May- 
enne, and  reproached  with  ingratitude  to  the  benefactor  to  whom 
he  owed  his  present  exalted  position,  Le  Maistre  defended  him- 
self and  the  parliament  with  firmness  and  dignity,  and  he  wa.> 
rewarded  by  the  unanimous  endorsement  of  the  court  over 
which  he  presided.2  Not  otherwise  than  parliament  thought 
the  people,  who  insulted  the  legate,  hooted  at  the  Duke  of 
Feria  when  he  came  out  into  the  streets,  and  even  threw  stones 
at  him  as  he  passed.3 

The  eventful  Conference  of  Suresnes  has  become  a  part  of 

the  general  history  of  France.     Happily,  among  the  deputies 

on  the  royal  side  was  the  historian  Jacques  Augnste 

The  Confer-       _       __.         J      .       .  .  ,,  r    ■< 

ence  of  Su-      De  lhou,  who  has  devoted  the  greater  part  of  the  one 

hundred  and  sixth  book  of  his  immortal  work  to  a 

narrative  of  the  successive  sessions,  than  which  nothing  can  be 

more  authentic,  and  in  which  those  anxious  to  follow  the  tortu- 


1  "  Arrest  donne  en  la  Cour  de  Parlement  a  Paris,  le  28.  jour  de  Join,  1 

in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  397.     See  De  Thou,  viii.  280,  etc. ;  Lestoile,  ii. 
147. 

2  "Ledit  Sieur  le  Maistre  lui  fit  response,  que  s'il  entendoit  parler  <le  lui, 
que  a  la  verite  il  avoit  receu  beaucoup  d'honneur  de  lui.  estant  pourveu  d'un 
Estat  de  President  en  icelle,  mais  neantmoins  qu'il  s'estoit  tousjoars  conserve 
la  liberte  de  parler  franchenient,  principalement  des  choses  qui  conoernent 
l'honneur  de  Dieu,  la  justice,  et  le  soulaireinent  du  peuple,  n'ayant  rapporte 
autre  fruict  de  cest  Estat  en  son  particulier  que  de  la  peine  et  du  travail  beau- 
coup,  lequel  estoit  cause  de  la  mine  de  sa  maison,  et  que  lui  estoit  expose  a  la 
calomnie  de  tons  les  mesehans  de  la  ville."  Account  of  the  interview  of  June 
30,  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  399.     De  Thou,  viii.  285. 

3  Lestoile,  ii.  145. 


1593.  THE  ABJURATION.  327 

ous  paths  of  the  negotiation  can  easily  trace  it.  One  significant 
fact,  however,  is  not  mentioned  by  De  Thou,  which  deserves  to 
be  referred  to  here.  When  the  royalist  deputies,  with  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Bo  urges  at  their  head,  were  about  to  start  for  the 
appointed  place  of  meeting,  a  desire  was  felt  to  know  with 
greater  definiteness,  and  from  the  lips  of  the  monarch  himself, 
what  Henry  the  Fourth's  intentions  really  were  ;  and  Monsieur 
d'O  was  chosen  to  put  the  question  bluntly  to  his  majesty.  It 
wras  no  time  for  doubtful  or  ambiguous  assurances,  and  Henry 
gave  none.  Not  even  in  his  letters  to  the  pope  and  to  the  Grand 
Duke  of  Tuscany  had  he  spoken  so  distinctly.  He  informed 
d'O  that  he  had  contemplated  going  over  to  the  Roman  Catho- 
Henry-sinti-  ^c  Church  from  the  very  moment  of  his  accession 
w™£2™i8   to  the  throne,  and  that  he  was  in  earnest  when  he 

intended  con-  " 

version.  promised  to  submit  to  instruction  within  six  months. 

Circumstances  beyond  his  control  had  prevented  the  fulfilment 
of  his  engagement — the  obstacles  thrown  in  the  way  by  succes- 
sive popes;  the  probability  or  certainty  that  the  Protestants, 
abandoned  by  him,  would  elect  another  Protector  in  his  stead ; 
the  power  of  the  League  yet  unbroken  ;  the  avidity  of  the  peo- 
ple for  a  war  whose  hardships  they  had  not  yet  experienced. 
In  such  conditions,  his  conversion  would  have  failed  to  secure 
peace  to  France.  Not  so  at  present.  "  For,"  said  he,  with  easy 
frankness,  "  I  have  taken  measures  to  make  sure  of  and  to  sum- 
mon to  me  all  those  of  the  [Reformed]  religion  who  might  create 
a  disturbance.  As  for  the  heads  of  the  League,  they  have  not  at 
present  forces  enough  to  resist  me  without  the  help  of  the  Span- 
iard. As  to  the  people  of  that  party,  I  know  that  the  annoy- 
ance they  have  experienced  from  the  war  makes  them  desire 
peace.  Having,  therefore,  secured  those  of  the  [Reformed]  re- 
ligion who  might  make  a  disturbance,  I  am  resolved  to  ruin  the 
<  tiers  parti '  entirely  by  means  of  my  conversion  to  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion.  This  conversion  I  hope  to  execute  through 
the  instruction  to  be  given  me  by  the  French  prelates,  whom  I 
shall  convene  within  three  months  at  farthest.  There  will  then 
remain  only  the  adherents  of  the  League,  and  with  them,  I 
hope,  by  the  instrumentality  of  the  conference  agreed  upon 
(should  the    deputies   deport  themselves  properly),   to  bestow 


The  first  dis- 
cussion. 


328  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND   HENRY   OF  NAVARRE     Ch.  XIII. 

upon  my  people  the  peace  which  they  so  much  need.  Inform 
the  Archbishop  of  Bourges  of  my  intention,  and  let  him  man- 
age this  affair  according  to  his  prudence."  ' 

Delighted  with  the  possession  of  a  weapon  whose  importance 
they  could  scarcely  over-estimate,  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges 
and  his  associates  boldly  engaged  the  deputies  of  the 
League.  Of  these  the  most  prominent  were  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Lyons,  President  Jeannin  of  the  Parliament  of  Dijon, 
and  Yillars,  the  brave  defender  of  Rouen,  recently  rewarded 
for  his  services  by  Mayenne  with  the  post  of  high  admiral,  once 
held  by  Gaspard  de  Coligny.  The  discussion  became  from  the 
start  a  tilt  between  the  two  archbishops.  The  prelate  of  Bour- 
ges extolled  the  prospective  benefits  of  peace,  and  demonstrated 
that  through  submission  to  the  king  alone  could  the  attainment 
of  peace  be  hoped  for.  The  prelate  of  Lyons  maintained,  on 
the  contrary,  that  provision  must  first  be  made  for  the  safety  of 
religion.  The  former  set  forth  the  claims  of  the  ruling  mon- 
arch, a  descendant  of  Saint  Louis,  no  idolater,  or  Mohammedan, 
but  a  prince  who  had  received  Christian  baptism,  who  pro- 
fessed to  hold  the  same  creed  as  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
and  who,  if  not  entirely  free  from  error,  had  always  offered  to 
submit  to  instruction.  The  latter  ransacked  history,  both  .-acred 
and  profane,  to  prove  the  extreme  danger  of  obeying  a  heretical 
prince.  The  Archbishop  of  Bourges  showed  that  neither  un- 
der the  old  nor  under  the  new  Dispensation  were  subjects  per- 
mitted to  revolt  against  their  prince  upon  the  pretext  of  relig- 
ion. The  Jews  were  indeed  forbidden  to  elect  a  foreign  king 
lest  he  lead  them  into  idolatry  ;  yet,  on  the  one  hand.  Jeconiah 
having,  in  obedience  to  the  prophet  Jeremiah's  injunctions,  sub- 
mitted to  Nebuchadnezzar,  saved  his  own  life  and  the  liv< 
his  wife  and  children,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  Zedekiah,  who 
refused  to  submit,  saw  his  children  slain  before  his  face,  and 
was  then  himself  deprived  of  his  eyes,  while  Jerusalem  was 


1  Cayet,  Chronologie  novenaire  (Edition  Michaud  et  Poujoulat),  445.  I 
concur  with  Dr.  Stahelin,  Uebertritt  Heinricli  des  Vierten,  521,  S22,  that  the 
absence  of  reference  to  this  interview  with  Monsieur  d'O  by  any  writer  except 
Cayet  is  not  sufficient  ground  for  scepticism  as  to  its  occurrence. 


1593.  THE  ABJURATION.  329 

laid  waste,  the  temple  burned,  and  the  people  carried  away  into 
captivity.  The  Archbishop  of  Lyons  declared  that  Heresy  is  a 
crime  of  treason  against  God,  annihilates  all  privileges,  and  de- 
grades all  who  are  its  followers.  An  heretical  king  is  so  much 
the  more  criminal,  as  he  is,  by  virtue  of  his  office,  specially 
bound  to  defend  religion,  and  as  his  example  is  more  dangerous 
than  that  of  a  private  person. 

Others  took  part  in  the  debate.  The  royalists  alleged  the 
immemorial  right  exercised  by  the  French  to  defend  themselves 
against  papal  aggression.  The  Leaguers  denied  the  so-called 
Gallican  Liberties.  They  maintained  that  these  privileges  were 
pure  fictions  of  the  imagination.  The  friends  of  Henry  pressed 
the  other  }arty  to  set  forth  clearly  the  terms  upon  which  they 
wTould  conclude  a  peace  which  they  affected  so  ardently  to  de- 
sire. His  opponents,  through  their  old  spokesman,  declared 
that  they  must  wait  to  hear  from  the  pope,  whose  commands 
they  were  ever  ready  to  obey.1 

So  passed  the  first  three  sessions,  held  at  intervals  during  the 
latter  part  of  April  and  the  beginning  of  May.  Toward  recon- 
ciliation little  or  no  progress  had  been  made.  The  moment  had 
come  when  something  decisive  must  be  done.  The  fourth 
session  took  place  on  the  seventeenth  of  May.  The  royalist 
deputies  Schomberg  and  Revol  were  bearers  of  an  important 
announcement.  His  majesty  had  written  letters  to  all  the  prin- 
cipal prelates  of  his  realm,  in  which  he  declared  that  the  re- 
gret he  felt  at  the  misery  into  which  France  had  been 
the  bishops  to  plunged  under  pretext  of  religion,  and  his  desire  to 
testify  to  his  good  Catholic  subjects  his  sense  of  their 
fidelity  and  affection,  had  determined  him,  in  order  that  he 
might  leave  them,  if  possible,  no  scruple  based  on  the  diversity 
of  his  religion,  to  receive  at  the  earliest  moment  instruction  on 
the  differences  whence  proceeded  the  schism  existing  in  the 
Church.  For  this  purpose  he  invited  them  to  meet  him  at 
Mantes,  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  ensuing  month  of  July. 
He  assured  them  "  that  they  would  find  him  well  disposed  and 
teachable  in  all  those  matters  which  ought  to  influence  a  Yery 

1  De  Thou,  viii.  (book  106)  238-258. 


330  THE  HUGUENOTS   AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.        Ch.  XIIL 

Christian  King,  a  monarch  having  nothing  more  deeply  graven 
on  his  heart  than  zeal  for  the  service  of  God  and  the  mainten- 
ance of  His  true  Church.'1  l  Similar  letters  had  been  sent  to 
the  chief  nobles  of  the  kingdom,  to  secure  their  presence  on 
the  august  occasion.2 

The  secret  of  the  king's  intention  had  been  well  kept  ;  the 
surprise  of  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons  and  his  associates  was 
opposition  of  correspondingly  great.  Yet  the  virtual  promise  con- 
the  League,  tained  in  the  royal  letters  produced  upon  the  pro- 
fessed advocates  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  no  such  imme- 
diate effects  as  might  have  been  anticipated.  Instead  of  hasten- 
ing to  welcome  the  royal  convert,  they  lost  no  time  in  making 
his  way  more  difficult,  and  in  attempting  to  rob  him  of  any  ad- 
vantage which  his  conversion  might  procure  him.  Then  it  was 
that,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Infanta's  election  was  pressed  upon 
the  reluctant  states  ;  then  it  was  that,  as  an  answer  to  the 
king's  declaration,  the  deputies  of  the  League  wrote  letters  for 
general  circulation,  in  some  of  which  they  confined  themselves  to 
the  expression  of  incredulity  respecting  the  proposed  conversion 
of  one  who  had  not  yet  intermitted  the  public  exercises  of  a 
worship  which  he  was  beginning  to  blame,  nor  dismissed  its  min- 
isters, and  who  was  notoriously  the  same  in  words  and  in  deeds 
that  he  always  had  been  ; 3  then  it  was  that  others  undertook  to 
prove  that  a  heretic  can  never  be  sincerely  converted.  Sooner 
might  the  Ethiopian  change  his  skin,  or  the  leopard  his  spots, 
than  a  sectary  return  to  the  bosom  of  the  Church.  The  thing 
might  occur,  but  it  would  be  by  a  very  extraordinary  grace  of 
Heaven.4  New  sessions  of  the  conference  took  place,  it  is  true, 
first  at  La  Koquette,  not  far  from  the  Porte  Saint  Antoine  and 
the  Bastile,  and  subsequently  at  La  Yillette,  on  the  road  to  Saint 
Denis;  but  the  deputies,  acting  under  instructions  from  Paris, 
were  obstinate,  and  would  not  even  consent  to  a  three  months' 

1  One  of  the  royal  letters  is  printed  in  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v. 
uCopie  de  Lettre  dn  Roy  a  l'Evesque  de  Chartres."  The  date  is  Mantes, 
18,  1593.     Also,  in  Lettres  missives,  iii.  771. 

2  These  letters  were  also  of  a  stereotype  form.     See  Lettres  missives,  iii.  77:1 

3  In  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  v.  381-385. 

4  De  Thou,  viii.  267. 


1593.  THE   ABJURATION.  331 

truce.  The  nobles  and  the  people  were,  as  usual,  more  moder- 
ate than  the  clergy,  who  received  their  orders  from  the  legate. 
The  suffering  populace,  in  their  indignation  at  the  conduct  of 
the  foreign  prelate,  were  ready  for  a  riot.  They  trooped  to  the 
gates  of  the  city,  once  and  again,  when  the  deputies  set  out  for 
Suresnes,  uttering  loud  cries  of  "  Peace  !  Peace  !  Blessed  be 
they  that  seek  and  procure  it !  Cursed  be  those  who  do  other- 
wise ;  may  all  the  devils  take  them  !  "  '  Parliament  evidently 
sympathized  with  the  discontent  of  the  people.2  Meanwhile 
Henry  the  Fourth  took  ample  revenge  for  the  refusal  of  the 
League  to  consent  to  an  armistice,  by  besieging  and  capturing 
Dreux,  the  only  place  of  importance  which  had  continued  to 
hold  for  the  League  in  the  vicinity  of  the  capital."  3 

The  deed  was  virtually  done.  After  long  delay,  after  an  ap- 
pearance of  hesitation  which  was  probably  more  feigned  than 
real,  the  son  of  Jeanne  d'Albret  had  at  length  committed  him- 
self fully.  He  would  renounce  the  religion  which  he  had  im- 
bibed, as  he  had  been  fond  of  reiterating,  with  his  mother's 
milk,  this  coming  July.  He  would  embrace  the  Romish  mass, 
of  which  that  mother  had  said  that,  sooner  than  attend  it, 
had  she  her  kingdom  and  her  son  in  her  hand,  she  would  cast 
them  both  into  the  depth  of  the  sea.4  It  was  currently  reported 
that  he  even  made  the  cynical  observation  that  Paris  was  cer- 
tainly worth  a  mass.5  The  story  was  perhaps  apocryphal,  but 
it  expressed  a  sentiment  which  he  felt,  if  he  did  not  utter. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Huguenots  had  seen  with 
unconcern  or  observed  without  remonstrance  the  progress  of  the 
drama  whose  catastrophe  was  now  approaching.     They  would 

1  Lestoile,  ii.  127.  2  De  Thou,  viii.  268-278. 

3  De  Thou,  viii.  287-291.  4  Rise  of  the  Huguenots,  ii.  10. 

5  The  Recueil  des  choses  memorables  (2d  edition,  1598),  761,  762,  ascribes 
the  expression,  somewhat  modified,  to  the  royalists  when  urging  Henry  to  em- 
brace Roman  Catholicism.  "  Le  sommaire  de  leurs  sollicitations  estoit  .  .  . 
que  tandis  que  le  Roy  adhereroit  ouvertement  a  son  acoustumee  Religion,  ceux 
du  parti  contraire  (cent  fois  en  plus  grand  nombre)  suivroyent  la  maison  de 
Guise  et  les  autres  chefs  Ligueurs,  qui  par  le  moyen  de  l'Espagnol  et  du 
Pape  scauroyent  bien  trouver  le  moyen  de  maintenir  et  augmenter  l'embrase- 
ment  par  tous  les  coins  et  au  milieu  de  son  Royaume,  lequel  valoit  bien  une 
Messe  ;  et  ne  faloit  le  laisser  perdre  pour  des  ceremonies,"  etc. 


332     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cn.  XIII. 

have  been   not  only  untrue  to  their  own  instincts,  but   false 

to  their  own  history  and  to  their  proverbial  boldness,  had  they 

suffered  any  motives  of  policy  to  silence  their  ear- 

The  Hugue-  J  .  .     r  J      . 

nots  remon-  nest  protest  against  a  crime  affecting,  not  so  much  the 
moral  character  of  one  man  as  the  public  conscience 
of  Christendom.  With  Henry's  promise  to  submit  to  instruc- 
tion they  could  not  indeed  be  offended  ;  for  the  crafty  monarch 
had  quietly  taken  every  advantage  of  his  old  companions  in 
arms,  and  had  turned  their  innocence  and  simplicity  to  good 
account.  What  objection  could  the  Protestants  consistently 
urge  against  the  interview  at  Mantes,  when  Duplessis  Mornay, 
of  all  their  diplomatists  and  statesmen  the  most  incorruptible 
and  sincere,  had  taken  pains  to  make  of  the  king's  instruction  a 
cardinal  article  in  the  terms  discussed  with  Villemv  1  Thus 
had  the  Huguenot  governor  of  Saumur  earned  the  life-long  re- 
gret that  he  had  been  made  the  unconscious,  but  none  the  leas 
efficient,  instrument  of  furthering  a  plan  which  he  loathed  from 
his  inmost  soul. 

When,  in  the  early  spring,  certain  Protestant  ministers  sound- 
ed Henry  respecting  the  current  rumors  of  his  apostasy,  his 
Henry's  as-  majesty  bade  them  give  no  credit  to  the  story,  and  be 
surances.  WG\\  assured  that  he  would  never  change  his  religion  ; 
for  he  had  always  acted  intelligently  and  conscientiously.'  And 
when  they  came  again,  a  month  or  two  later,  with  their  more 
distinct  remonstrances,  he  denied,  but  with  less  positiveness, 
that  he  intended  to  become  a  Roman  Catholic.  "  You  know," 
said  he,  "what  I  have  always  told  you."  Then  he  added: 
"Yet,  were  I  to  do  it,  you  have  no  reason  to  be  alarmed  thereat, 
nor  to  take  it  amiss.  On  the  contrary,  I  am  entering  the  house, 
not  to  live  in  it,  but  to  cleanse  it.  I  promise  you,  it  is  - 
And  as  for  yourselves,  I  shall  not  give  you  any  worse  treatment 


1  The  remark  is  that  of  Benoist,  Histoire  de  l'Edit  de  Nantes,  i.  00,  to 
which  Dr.  Stahelin  has  called  attention:  "  Les  Catholiques  gagnerent  nean- 
moins  cecy  a  ces  conferences  qu'ils  delivrerent  le  Roy  de  la  crainte  doffenser 
les  Reformez,  en  prenant  des  mesnres  pour  se  faire  instrnire,  puis  que  celuy 
de  tous  les  Reformez,  qui  etoit  le  moins  suspect  en  matiere  de  Religion,  vou- 
loit  bien  faire  de  cette  instruction  un  article  du  Traittc  de  paix.*' 

2  "  Par  science  et  par  conscience."     Lestoile,  ii.  127. 


1593.  THE   ABJURATION.  333 

than  I  have  always  given  you,  up  to  the  present  day.  Pray 
God  for  me,  and  I  shall  love  you."  '  The  last  sentence  need 
occasion  no  surprise.  Henry  of  Navarre  was  at  all  times  prodi- 
gal of  pious  references  to  the  Divine  power  and  to  his  depend- 
ence upon  heavenly  aid.  He  had  even  the  assurance  to  inform 
his  correspondents  that  he  hoped,  during  the  approaching  in- 
struction, that  God  would  grant  him  the  assistance  of  His  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  plan  he  had  adopted,  whose  sole  object  was  to 
choose  and  follow  the  true  way  of  salvation.2  We  naturally  ask 
ourselves  whether  Henry  was  thinking  of  these  utterances 
when,  as  will  be  seen  later,  upon  a  remarkable  occasion,  during 
his  own  severe  illness,  he  anxiously  pressed  Agrippa  d'Aubigne 
for  an  answer  to  the  inquiry,  whether  he  thought  that  his  king- 
had  committed  the  unpardonable  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost.3 

Nor  was  it  only  by  delegations  that  the  Huguenot  ministers 
endeavored  to  deter  the  king.  One  of  their  number,  preaching 
before  him  at  Mantes,  boldly  warned  him  from  the  pulpit  of 
the  judgments  of  the  Almighty,  should  he  apostatize.  When 
they  heard  of  it,  Cardinal  Bourbon  and  Monsieur  d'O  were  full 
of  indignation,  and,  going  to  his  majesty,  begged  him  to  pun- 
ish the  minister's  insolence.  But  Henry,  bowing  his  head,  for 
all  answer  only  said:  u  What  would  you  have  me  do?  He 
has  freely  told  me  my  faults."  4 

Those  of  the  leading  Huguenot  ministers  who  were  away 
from  court  used  their  pens,  and  some  of  the  most  eloquent  let- 


1  Lestoile,  ii.  138. 

2  ' '  Esperant  que  Dieu  assistera  de  sa  grace  par  son  Sainct-Esprit  ceste 
mienne  resolution  selon  le  sainct  zele  que  j'y  apporte  ;  qui  ne  tend  qu'a  em- 
brasser  et  suivre  la  vraye  voie  de  mon  salut."  Henry  IV.  to  the  Grand  Duke 
of  Tuscany,  May  30,  1593,  Lettres  missives,  iii.  783.  Henry,  about  this  time, 
indulged  in  many  expressions  of  the  kind.  President  Groulart  reports  him  as 
stating  to  the  magistrates  and  officers  whom  he  assembled,  on  the  24th  of  July, 
the  day  before  the  abjuration,  that  he  had  been  brought  up  in  a  contrary  be- 
lief to  theirs,  but  that  "by  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  he  began  to  "  relish  " 
the  arguments  for  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  which  had  been  alleged  to  him. 
Memoires  de  Claude  Groulart  (Edition  Michaud  et  Poujoulat),  560. 

3  Memoires  d'Agrippa  d'Aubigne  (Edition  Pantheon),  503. 

4  "  Que  voules-vous  ?  II  m'a  ditmes  verites."  Lestoile,  ii.  133.  The  preach- 
er is  said  by  Lestoile  to  have  been  D' Amours. 


334  THE   HUGUENOTS   AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.        Ch.  XIII. 

ters  that  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century  were  their  unavailing  pleas  with  Henry  to  vindicate  his 
better  nature  and  do  justice  to  his  convictions  of  right  and 
truth.  From  Geneva  came  a  vigorous  epistle  from  the  aged 
Letters  of  reformer,  Theodore  Beza,  opportunely  brought  to 
derEsplne,  light111  our  own  days  to  relieve  his  memory  from  the 
and  others,  strange  misapprehension  or  calumny  that  he  acqui- 
esced in  the  advisability  of  Henry's  abjuration.1  From  other 
quarters  came  the  scarcely  less  noteworthy  appeals  of  Jean  de 
l'Espine,  and  another  whose  name,  could  it  be  ascertained,  would 
well  deserve  to  be  held  in  lasting  remembrance.2  From  St. 
Jean  d'Angely  came  a  masterpiece  of  eloquent  and  affectionate 
remonstrance,  to  which  I  have  had  frequent  occasion  to  refer, 
and  which  will  ever  place  Gabriel  d' Amours  among  the  most 
pleasing  personages  of  an  age  not  deficient  in  well-defined 
characters.  He  it  was  who  laid  bare  the  king's  weakness,  and 
warned  him  of  the  insidious  influence  of  that  fair  Gabrielle 
d'Estrees,  now  Duchess  of  Beaufort,  who,  seeing  that  the  only 
hope  of  securing  her  royal  lover's  divorce  from  Margaret  of 
Yalois  and  his  marriage  to  herself  lay  in  the  favor  of  the  j 
was  employing  every  seductive  art  to  persuade  Henry  to  enter 
the  Church  of  Borne.3 


1  The  discovery  of  the  letter  written  by  Theodore  Beza  to  Henry  TV. ,  in 
June,  1593,  among  the  treasures  of  the  Library  of  Geneva,  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  of  the  many  discoveries  of  M.  Jules  Bonnet.  The  document  was 
printed  for  the  first  time  in  the  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de  1  histoire  du  Pi 
tantisme  francais,  i.  41-46.  Previously  to  this  time,  even  so  excellent  and  con- 
scientious a  historian  as  Schlosser,  in  his  life  of  Beza  Heidelberg,  1809)  p. 
272,  had  represented  the  reformer  as  so  free  from  blind  fanaticism  that,  in- 
stead of  lamenting  the  king's  abjuration,  he  regarded  it  only  as  a  nee 
step  to  heal  the  wounds  of  lacerated  France. 

2  M.  Charles  Bead  has  done  good  service  to  the  cause  of  history  by  collect- 
ing and  publishing,  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Bulletin  of  the  French  P 
taut  Historical  Society,  not  less  than  four  important  letters,  three  of  them 
till  then  inedited,  directly  bearing  upon  the  abjuration.  Besides  Beza's  letter 
above  referred  to,  these  comprise  the  "  Discours  an  Boy  par  un  sien  sujet  et 
serviteur"  (i.  105-112,  155-158),  the  letter  of  Jean  de  l'Espine  (i.  449--4V,  . 
and  that  of  Gabriel  d' Amours  (i.  280-285). 

3  "La belle  Gabrielle  d'Estree,  Maitresse  du  Boy,  prenoit  part  a  ce.<  intrigues. 
Elle  ne  hai'ssoit  pas  les  Reformez,  qu'elle  estimoit  fidelles  et  gens  de  bien  ;  et 


1593.  THE   ABJURATION.  335 

"I  have  ever  had  this  honor  from  God,"  he  wrote,  "  and  this 

good  fortune,  to  see  you  always  prosper ;  and  if  you  listened  to 

Gabriel  d' Amours,  your  minister,   as  you  listen   to 

Appeal  of 

Gabriel  Gabrielle  your  mistress,  I  should  still  see  you  a  £ener- 

d'Amours.  1  •      '  i         •  i  •        i        tt 

ous  king  and  triumphant  over  your  enemies.  How 
did  you  act  lately,  when  I  was  near  your  majesty  at  Saint  Denis 
and  Chartres  ?  Did  I  not  remind  you,  in  a  sermon  at  Saint  Denis, 
what  Delilah  did  to  Samson,  who  rendered  him  miserable  and 
contemptible  in  the  eyes  of  the  Philistines?  If  you  should 
act  as  did  David  after  the  prophet  Nathan's  remonstrance — as 
your  majesty  knows  that  God  has  graciously  suffered  me  to  have 
the  boldness  several  times  to  address  remonstrances  to  you 
which  you  have  taken  in  very  good  part,  as  coming  from  your 
very  humble  and  faithful  subject  and  a  pastor  whom  you  love 
— I  am  sure  that  God  will  show  you  grace  and  mercy.  But  you 
keep  on  your  way,  as  we  are  told  by  all  who  come  to  us  from 
court.  When  God  wrought  such  miracles  through  you,  you 
did  not  live  thus.  We  are  told  in  these  regions  that  you  are 
about  to  imitate  Solomon,  who  turned  aside  to  idolatry  ;  women 
were  the  cause  of  it.  It  is  said  that  you  have  promised  to  go 
to  mass,  which  I  in  no  wise  credit,  and  I  shall  ever  fight  in  single 
combat  to  maintain  the  contrary.  What !  Can  it  be  that  the 
greatest  captain  in  the  world  has  become  so  cowardly  as  to  go 
to  mass  for  fear  of  men  ?  Where  would  be  that  great  magna- 
nimity, that  faith  so  rare,  so  great,  which  I  so  often  beheld  in 
you  when,  according  to  men,  you  saw  nothing  but  desperate 
straits  ?  What  have  you  accomplished  in  all  your  life  with 
a  majority?     On   the  contrary,  what   have  you  not  achieved 

meme  elle  en  avoit  plusieurs  ail  nombre  de  ses  domestiques.  Mais  les  Sei- 
gneurs de  la  Religion  n'avoient  pas  beaucoup  de  complaisance  pour  elle  :  et 
jamais  ils  neussent  favorise  ses  ambitieux  desseins.  Au  contraire,  on  luy 
faisoit  esperer  que  si  le  Roy  changeoit  de  Religion,  elle  auroit  plus  de  lieu  de 
pretendre  al'epouser  ;  parce  qu'il  pourroit  faire  casser  par  le  Pape  son  mariage 
avec  Marguerite  de  Valois,  et  se  mettre  en  liberte  d'en  contracter  un  autre." 
Benoist,  Histoire  de  l'edit  de  Nantes,  i.  93. 

1  The  play  upon  the  words  in  the  original  cannot  be  imitated  in  the  transla- 
tion:  "Si  vous  escoutiez  Gabriel  Damours  vtre  [votre]  ministre,  comme  vous. 
escoutes  Gabriels  vtre  [votre]  amoureuse,  je  vous  verroy  tousjours  Roy  gene- 
reux  et  triomphant  de  vos  ennemis." 


336  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.       Ch.  XIII. 

in  conjunction  with  the  small  number  of  the  true  Israelites  I 

Do  you  wish  me  to  predict  your  misfortune — me,  respecting 
whom  you  have  many  times  said  before  your  nobles  that  I 
always  predicted  you  good  fortune  ?  I  cannot  do  it.  I  will 
believe  good  until  I  shall  have  seen  evil  ;  sufficient  unto  the 
day  the  evil  thereof,  says  Jesus  Christ.  You  wish  to  be  in- 
structed by  the  bishops  of  the  Romish  Church,  we  are  told. 
O,  you  are  not  the  king  that  needs  to  be  instructed  !  You  are 
a  greater  theologian  than  am  I,  who  am  your  minister.  You 
have  no  lack  of  science  (knowledge) ;  but  you  have  a  little  lack 
of  conscience."1 

Such  remonstrances  came  from  one  who  maintained  that  he 
would  indeed  ever  pray  to  God  in  behalf  of  his  misguided 
king,'  and  that,  should  that  king  forget  himself  so  far  as  to  at- 
tend mass,  he  would  go  and  serve  him  in  person,  if  not  as  his 
minister,  yet  as  a  soldier,  having  always  been  near  him  upon  the 
battle-field  when  he  still  had  the  sword  unsheathed  and  bloody. 

True  it  is  that,  in  the  midst  of  the  universal  cry  of  honest 

protest  that  arose  from  his  old  fellows  in  arms,  as  well  as  from 

his  spiritual  advisers,  against  Henry's  projected  dis- 

The  "  minis-     .  _r  ,  .  .      .  ,  J        rr     J     .       .  , . 

trescourti-  loyalty  to  his  convictions,  there  were  a  tew  insidious 
voices  of  nominal  Protestants  speaking  to  him  in  the 
secrecy  of  his  bedchamber,  and  counselling  or  justifying  the 
step  he  was  about  to  take.  A  knot  of  two  or  three  minis- 
ters of  the  religion  which  he  still  professed,  whether  sincerely 
holding  the  latitudinarian  views  they  expressed,  or  actuated,  as 
was  commonly  reported,  and  as  seems  not  improbable,  by 
mercenary  motives,  whispered  in  his  ear  a  theory  of  the  rela- 
tions of  Roman  Catholicism  and  the  Reformation  little  calcu- 
lated to  strengthen  the  king's  moral  courage  and  resolution. 


1  "  Vous  n'aves  faulte  de  science,  mais  vous  avez  ung  peu  faulte  de  con- 
science." 

2  "  Priez  Dieu.  Nous  prierons  incessament  pour  vous.  Quand  je  you?  re- 
monstre,  vous  me  respondes  cela  ordinairement,  Que  vous  prieres  de  vostiv 
coste  et  me  commandes  de  prier  Dieu  pour  vous.  Je  ne  combas  pas  seulement 
par  prieres  envers  Dieu  pour  vous,  mais  contre  tous  ceux  qui  parlent  mal  de 
vous." 

3  Gabriel  d' Amours  to  Henry  IV.,  June  20,  1593,  ubi  supra. 


1593.  THE   ABJURATION.  337 

The  Romish  body  they  conceded  to  be  a  church,  and,  indeed, 
not  only  a  church,  but  the  most  ancient  church,  and  conse- 
quently the  only  church  that  could  lay  claim  to  the  name 
without  further  necessity  of  qualification.  In  some  sense, 
and  in  spite  of  certain  errors,  it  was  the  Church  of  Christ.  A 
person  might,  therefore,  certainly  be  saved  within  it.  The 
fathers  of  the  Reformation  had  erred  in  creating  a  schism,  in- 
stead of  correcting  the  existing  faults.1  The  doctrine  was  a 
pleasing  one  to  Henry,  as  it  has  always  proved,  in  times  of 
pressure  and  persecution,  to  a  considerable  number  of  men  and 
women  of  somewhat  shallow  convictions.  But  whether  the  ar- 
guments of  the  recreant  Huguenot  ministers  had  any  weight 
with  Henry  or  not,  certain  it  is  that  those  who  conversed  with 
him,  about  this  time,  found  him  imbued  with  the  very  comfort- 
able opinion,  that  the  differences  between  the  two  religions  were 
great  only  in  consequence  of  the  passionate  representation  of 
rival  preachers.2 

Among  his  Protestant  courtiers,  the  future  Duke  of  Sully 

distinguished  himself  by  the  encouragement  he  gave  to  his 

master's  abjuration.     A  Huguenot  by  birth,  but  a  soldier,  not  a 

theologian,  much  less  a  religious  man  in  his  feelings 

Rosny  encour-  ,..,  ,  iiii  -i  •  • 

ages  Henry  and  principles,  the  great  noble  had  no  inclination 
himself  to  abandon  the  profession  of  a  faith  uniting 
him  to  the  party  with  which  all  his  interests  were  identified. 
But  he  had  no  hesitation  in  declaring  that  in  the  king's  conver- 
sion to  Roman  Catholicism  lay  the  quickest,  if  not,  indeed,  the 
only,  road  to  undisputed  possession  of  the  throne,  and  he  has 
manifested  no  shame  in  recording  on  the  pages  of  his  Memoires 
the  part  he  took  in  the  disgraceful  proceeding.3     Henry  sum- 


1  Agrippa  d' Aubigne,  iii.  (book  3,  ch.  22)  290.  The  Memoires  de  Sully,  chap. 
40,  have  something  to  say  of  "  les  connivences  pleines  d'artifice  de  quelques 
ministres  et  Huguenots  du  cabinet,  qui  vouloient  profiter  du  temps  a  quelque 
prix,  et  par  quelque  voye  que  ce  put  etre." 

2  "Est  certain  aussy  qu'il  [Duplessis]  le  trouva  imbeu  d'une  opinion,  qui  luy 
sembloit  alleger  sa  faulte  ;  que  le  differend  des  relligions  n'estoit  grant  que  par 
l'animosite  des  prescheurs,  et  qu'ung  jour,  par  son  auctorite,  il  le  pouvoit  com- 
poser." Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste  sur  la  vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  son 
Mari,  i.  261.  3  (Economies  royales,  c.  38  (Ed.  of  1G63,  i.  351-358). 

Vol.  II.— 22 


338  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.        Ch.  XIIL 

moned  him  to  his  bedside  one  morning  before  he  had  risen,  with 
the  view  of  leading  Sully  to  advise  him  to  do  the  very  thing  he 
was  already  determined  to  do.  Nor  did  the  worldly-wise  states- 
man decline  to  fall  in  with  the  plan.  When  Henry,  in  well-feigned 
perplexity,  spread  before  him  the  difficulties  and  the  perils  of 
his  situation — the  growing  restlessness  of  the  royalists  of  his 
suite,  the  ingratitude  of  those  whom  he  had  imagined  that  he 
had  bound  to  his  cause  by  favors  conferred,  and  the  probable 
dangers  to  his  state,  if  not  to  his  life,  from  conspiracies  already 
hatched  against  him — Rosny,  seated  by  his  command  on  the 
edge  of  his  couch,  calmly  told  him  that  he  saw  but  two  methods 
by  which  safety  might  be  secured.  The  one  was  to  accede  to 
the  desires  of  those  of  whom  he  stood  in  suspicion.  The  other 
wras  to  arrest  the  richest  and  most  powerful  of  these  enemies, 
place  them  in  some  spot  where  they  could  do  him  no  harm,  and 
employ  their  abundant  resources  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war. 
With  the  presentation  of  the  alternative,  Rosny  modestly  pro- 
posed to  stop  ;  "for,"  said  he,  "  to  counsel  you  to  go  to  mass  ie 
a  thing  which,  it  seems  to  me,  you  ought  not  to  expect  from  me, 
seeing  I  belong  to 'the  religion.'  Yet  I  will  tell  you  frankly 
that  this  is  the  most  prompt  and  easy  means  of  thwarting  all 
these  intrigues  and  making  all  the  shrewdest  projects  of  your 
enemies  end  in  smoke."  When  his  majesty,  however,  pressed 
him  to  state  frankly  what  he  would  do  were  he  in  his  place,  the 
courtier  ceased  to  measure  his  words  with  well-affected  hesita- 
tion. Not  more  distinctly  did  Vice  depict  to  the  youthful  Her- 
cules at  the  cross-roads  the  sweets  he  might  expect  upon  the 
path  to  which  she  allured  him,  in  contrast  wirli  the  hardships 
attending  the  path  which  Virtue  was  about  to  urge  him  to  enter. 
than  did  Maximilien  de  Bethune  portray  the  ease  and  comfort 
upon  which  Henry,  when  once  converted,  might  count,  as  opposed 
to  the  misery  to  which  he  might  regard  himself  condemned  for 
the  remainder  of  his  days,  should  he  prefer  principle  to  interest, 
a  clear  conscience  to  luxurious  repose.  If,  of  the  only  two  prac- 
ticable courses  Henry  should  choose  the  resort  to  force,  his  wily 
adviser  saw  nothing  before  him  but  difficulties,  fatigue,  pain. 
annoyance,  perils,  and  labors.  He  would  be  continually  in  the 
saddle,  encased  in  his  corselet,  with  his  helmet  on  his  head,  with 


1593.  THE   ABJURATION.  339 

his  pistol  in  his  hand,  with  his  sword  at  his  side.  What  was 
more,  he  would  have  to  bid  adien  to  rest,  pleasures,  pastimes, 
love,  mistresses,  games,  dogs,  birds,  and  plans  for  building  ;  for 
he  could  never  extricate  himself  from  his  troubles  but  by 
numerous  captures  of  cities,  by  multiplied  combats,  signal  vic- 
tories, and  a  great  effusion  of  blood.  "Instead  of  which,"  said 
he,  "by  the  other  road,  which  is  that  you  accommodate  your- 
self, touching  religion,  to  the  wishes  of  the  greater  number  of 
your  subjects,  you  will  not  encounter  so  many  vexations,  pains, 
and  difficulties  in  this  world.  As  to  the  other  world,"  he  added 
with  a  laugh,  "  I  do  not  answer  for  that.  But  then  it  is  your 
majesty's  function  to  come  to  a  final  determination  by  yourself, 
without  deriving  it  from  another,  and  least  of  all  from  me, 
knowing  that  I  am  a  Protestant,  and  that  you  keep  me  near 
you  not  as  a  theologian  or  an  ecclesiastical  counsellor,  but  as  a 
man  for  action  and  a  state  counsellor." 

If  Kosny  was  no  professed  theologian,  he  took  good  care  to 
give  a  very  clear  expression  to  his  views  on  the  question  of  the 
day,  and  found  his  royal  listener  in  nowise  inclined  to  cavil 
at  them.  The  duke  held  it  to  be  an  undoubted  truth,  that,  what- 
ever religion  men  may  externally  profess,  they  cannot  fail  to  be 
saved  if  they  die  in  the  observance  of  the  Decalogue,  and  the  be- 
lief in  the  Apostles'  Creed,  if  they  love  God  with  all  their  heart, 
have  charity  toward  their  neighbor,  hope  in  the  mercy  of  God, 
and  look  for  salvation  through  the  meritorious  death  and  right- 
eousness of  Jesus  Christ.  Nay,  applying  his  opinion  to  the 
case  in  hand,  he  declared  his  own  conviction  that,  should  Henry 
put  this  theory  into  practice,  he  would  attain  eternal  blessed- 
ness, whatever  outward  profession  he  might  make  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  while,  by  his  equitable  treatment  of  the  Prot- 
estants, he  would  secure  their  love  and  loyal  obedience.  The 
conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  was,  that  Sully  deemed  it  im- 
possible for  Henry  ever  to  reign  peaceably  so  long  as  he  should 
openly  adhere  to  a  religion  to  which  the  majority  of  his  subjects, 
both  great  and  small,  had  so  strong  an  aversion ;  and  that,  with- 
out general  tranquillity,  it  was  idle  to  expect  the  prosperity  of 
France,  much  less  the  realization  of  the  king's  magnificent  de- 
sign  of  the  establishment  of  a  universal    Christian   republic, 


1 


340  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.        Ch.  XIIL 

composed  of  all  the  kings  and  potentates  of  Europe  professing 
the  name  of  Christ. 

Henry  dismissed  Rosny  with  the  promise  that  he  would 
think  over  what  he  had  heard,  and  with  the  quiet  suggestion 
that  Rosny,  on  his  side,  should  communicate  his  hopes  to  as 
many  of  his  intimate  friends  as  he  knew  to  be  likely  to  favor 
them.1 

Before  two  other  distinguished  Huguenots  Henry  the  Fourth 
laid  his  perplexities,  enlarging  upon  the  alleged  perils  that 
environed  him,  and  hinting  even  at  plots  to  seize  his  person 
at  Mantes  and  betray  him  to  the  Duke  of  Mayenne.  But 
from  these  he  obtained  no  such  counsel  as  Rosny  had  given. 
Agnppa  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  using  the  familiarity  bred  of  long 
d'AubignS.  association  in  arms,  endeavored  to  prove  to  the  king, 
in  a  private  interview,  that  the  condition  of  the  realm  was  in  no- 
wise so  critical  as  his  majesty's  distempered  imagination  fancied 
it.  The  old  soldier  was  one  of  those  that  were  very  sceptical  re- 
specting the  influence  of  the  much-vaunted  "  third  party  "  (tiers 
parti),  believing  in  it  no  more  than  they  did  in  the  "  third  place  " 
— purgatory — by  means  of  whose  terrors  the  Romish  Church 
drove  a  profitable  traffic.2  He  tried  to  remove  Henry's  appre- 
hension of  the  election  of  a  new  king  by  the  League,  showing 
him  that  the  choice  of  the  Infanta's  husband  by  the  Paris  states 
general  would  be  the  signal  for  all  the  disappointed  candidates 
to  come  over  to  the  side  of  the  legitimate  monarch  and  to 
give  him  their  undivided  support.  The  disgust  of  many  of  the 
staunch  advocates  of  the  League  and  the  discontent,  verging 
upon  revolt,  of  the  Parisian  populace,  were  among  the  many 
elements  in  his  favor.  Nor  did  D'Aubigne  fail  to  set  before 
the  wavering  prince  the  blessings  he  had  received  at  God's 
hands,  and  the  curses  sure  to  follow  ingratitude;  assuring  him 
that  better  were  it  to  reign  over  a  mere  corner  of  France  while 


1  Sully,  ubi  supra,  chap.  38,  i.  pp.  354-358. 

2  "  Le  roi  n'avoit  faute  de  Refformez  qui  se  moquoient  de  ce  tiers  parti, 
lequel  ils  croioient  aussi  peu  que  le  troisiesme  lieu,  qui  est  le  Purgatoire,  et 
en  parloient  au  roi  avec  grand  mespris."  Histoire  universelle,  iii.  290  (book 
3,  c.  22). 


1593.  THE  ABJURATION.  341 

serving  the  Almighty,  than  to  obtain  a  precarious  rule  over  the 
whole  country,  trampled  upon  by  the  victorious  pope,  and  ex- 
posed to  the  insolence  of  his  own  subjects  who  had  compelled 
him  by  threats  to  change  his  religion.1 

Although  the  eyes  of  Duplessis  Morn  ay  had  been  slow  to  open 
to  the  true  state  of  the  case,  he  now  took  in  clearly  its  opportu- 
nities and  its  perils.  A  month  before,  he  had  written  the  melan- 
choly and  significant  words:  "  Our  king  is  still  himself,  in  the 
Dupiessis  matter  of  religion  ;  himself,  on  the  other  hand,  as  re- 
spects his  pleasures.  The  one  circumstance  consoles 
me,  when  I  see  that  he  is  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ ; 
the  other  afflicts  me  when  I  see  that  he  brings  shame  upon  the 
profession  of  that  gospel." 2  And  now,  more  in  sadness  than  with 
any  real  hope  of  preventing  a  foregone  conclusion,  he  addressed 
to  Henry  a  letter  of  remonstrance.  "  Sire,"  he  said,  "  I  have 
learned  something  of  what  took  place  on  the  fifteenth  at  Mantes, 
and  I  am  only  waiting  the  arrival  of  M.  de  Yicose  to  go  to  your 
majesty,  thinking  that  I  may  be  able  to  be  of  some  service  to 
you  there.  I  am  confident,  Sire,  in  spite  of  whatever  may  be 
said,  that  your  majesty  cannot  forget  the  favors  God  has  show- 
ered on  you ;  and  I  have  a  still  stronger  confidence  that  God, 
who  was  minded  of  you  before  you  were  born,  will  not  forget 
you.  If  you  hold  this  conference  with  the  intention  that  the 
Truth  shall  be  made  known,  you  will  wish  her  to  be  defended, 
and  you  will  accordingly  summon  persons  competent  to  do  this. 
If  you  do  not  summon  them,  Sire,  it  will  be  asserted  that  you 
are  only  seeking  an  observance  of  forms,  being  already  resolved 
to  make  a  surrender.  This  is  not  credible  in  the  case  of  the 
greatest  prince  of  our  times,  still  less  of  one  who  has  so  often 
experienced  the  intervention  of  the  arm  of  God  in  his  be- 
half. Think,  Sire,  that  all  those  who  have  heretofore  been 
wont  to  be  in  arms  for  you  against  your  enemies,  are  to-day 
marshalled  in  the  host  before  God,  praying  Him  to  strengthen 


1  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  292  (book  3,  c.  22). 

2"L'un  me  console  quand  je  vois  qu'il  n'est  poinct  honteux  de  PEvangile 
du  Christ  ;  l'aultre  m'afflige  quand  ;je  vois  qu'il  faict  honte  a  la  profession  de 
cest  Evangile."     Duplessis  to  La  Fontaine,  April  20,  1593,  Memoires,  v.  400. 


342  THE   HUGUENOTS   AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE         Cn.  XIIL 


you,  and  to  fulfil  in  you  the  saying,  that  His  gifts  and  calling 
are  without  repentance.  For  myself,  I  maintain  the  point  with 
assurance  against  all  comers  ;  and  I  very  humbly  entreat  the 
Almighty,  Sire,  that  He  may  impart  His  Spirit  to  you  accord- 
ing to  the  measure  of  your  temptations,  and  may  make  you 
victorious,  to  His  own  glory,  to  your  salvation,  and  to  the  in- 
struction of  your  people."  ' 

That  Henry  was  unmoved  by  these  and  other  appeals  from  the 
ministers  of  religion  whom  he  venerated,  and  from  the  lords  and 
gentlemen  with  whom  he  had  made  common  cause  daring  bo 
The  king's  many  years,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose.  On  the 
attitude.  contrary,  there  are  many  things  which  indicate  that 
the  final  triumph  of  expediency  over  moral  sentiment  was  not 
effected  without  a  painful  conflict,  a  struggle  in  which  the  bet- 
ter nature  at  times  asserted  itself.  Nor  is  it  doubtful  that  to 
the  king  there  seemed  no  other  way  out  of  his  present  perplex- 
ities than  that  of  sacrificing  his  own  religious  belief  to  the  c 
of  the  overwhelming  majority  of  his  people.  There  were 
many  in  his  own  times,  as  there  have  been  many  since 
then,  even  to  our  day,  who  regarded  the  election  of  a  king 
by  the  pretended  states  general  of  the  League  as  a  calamity  in- 
volving the  inevitable  ruin  of  the  State.  The  pretender,  recog- 
nized by  the  pope,  supported  by  the  great  majority  of  the  French 
people,  assisted  by  a  foreign  king  reputed  to  have  greater  re- 
sources of  men  and  money  than  any  other  contemporary  prince, 
a  king  ready  to  expend  the  wealth  of  the  Indies  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  his  designs,  would  gather  to  him  even  those  Roman 
Catholics  who,  in  hope  of  their  master's  ultimate  conversion, 
had  thus  far  remained  loyal.  There  seemed  to  be  force  even 
in  a  brutal  statement  of  the  case  made  by  the  blunt  and  profane 
Monsieur  d'O,  which  the  king  could  find  no  weapons  to  parry.1 
It  may  even  have  appeared  to  Henry  that,  in  a  sense,  when  con- 
senting; to  hear  the  Romish  mass,  he  was  consulting  the  safetv 
of  his  fellow  Protestants.     For  would  not  the  ruin  of  his  own 


1  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Henry  IV.,  Saumur,  May  25,  1593.  Memoires,  v.  496, 
437. 

'  See  Monsieur  d'O's  address  in  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  291,  292. 


1593.  THE   ABJURATION.  343 

prospects,  involving,  as  it  seemed  probable,  the  complete  subjec- 
tion of  France  to  Spain,  and  the  introduction  of  the  intolerant 
and  persecuting  policy  which  had  reigned  supreme  in  Spain  and 
the  Spanish  Netherlands,  with  all  the  horrors  of  the  Inquisition, 
bring  about  the  utter  destruction  of  French  Protestantism  ?  He 
did  not,  therefore,  probably  stand  in  his  own  eyes  altogether  as 
a  hypocrite,  when  he  went  so  far  as  to  assure  the  Protestants 
whom  he  was  forsaking,  that  he  was  sacrificing  himself  in  their 
behalf,  and  that  his  Huguenot  faith  would  always  continue  to  be 
the  real  religion  of  his  heart  and  soul.1  None  the  less  must  he 
who  would  read  aright  the  history  of  the  Abjuration  regard 
these  sentiments  only  as  the  flimsy  pretexts  with  which,  while 
attempting  to  impose  upon  others,  he  may  at  times  have  im- 
posed upon  himself.  A  stranger  to  deep  religious  convictions, 
he  had  exhibited  in  his  life  no  evidence  that  his  actions  were,  or 
that  he  desired  them  to  be,  moulded  after  the  pattern  of  a  lofty 
morality.  The  profession  of  a  few  doctrines  held  by  all  Christ- 
endom, the  intellectual  acceptance  of  the  distinctive  tenets  of  the 
Reformed  Church,  the  scoffing  rejection  of  as  many  dogmas  of 
the  Romish  Church— the  papal  supremacy,  transubstantiation, 
purgatory,  and  the  like — this  constituted,  apparently,  the  meagre 
fund  of  his  religion.  An  attendance,  more  or  less  patient,  upon 
the  Huguenot  "  preche,"  a  listening,  more  or  less  deferential,  to 
the  exhortation  or  reproof  of  his  Huguenot  chaplains,  a  few 
cheap  phrases  of  acknowledgment  of  Divine  aid  vouchsafed  in 
his  deliverances  on  the  battle-field  or  elsewhere,  were  the  scanty 
evidence  of  his  piety.  But  his  daily  conduct  was  little  affected 
either  by  his  theological  opinions  or  by  his  devotions;  and  for  a 
score  of  years  the  epochs  of  his  life  had  been  as  distinctly  marked 
by  the  succession  of  his  mistresses,  as  by  the  striking  political 
events  of  the  period.     If  there  was  any  change,  as  time  elapsed, 

1  ' '  Lors  commenca  le  roi  .  .  .  a  descouvrir  par  ses  emissaires  avec  les  Ref- 
formez,  leur  faire  pitie  jusques  a  ces  termes :  'Mes  amis,  priez  Dieu  pour 
inoi ;  s'il  faut  que  je  me  perde  pour  vous,  au  moins  vous  ferai-je  ce  bien,  que 
je  ne  souffrirai  aucune  forme  destruction,  pour  ne  faire  point  de  plaie  a  la 
Religion,  qui  sera  toute  ma  vie  celle  de  mon  ame  et  de  mon  coeur  ;  et  ainsi  je 
ferai  voir  a  tout  le  monde  que  je  n'ai  este  persuade  par  autre  theologie  que  la 
necessity  de  PEstat.'  "     Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  293,  294. 


344      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cn.  XI IL 

it  was  a  change  for  the  worse.  The  story  of  Henry's  amours 
was  varied  by  accounts  of  the  distress  of  his  cast-off  favorites, 
and  of  his  ingratitude.  Only  a  few  months  before  the  Abjura- 
tion, one  such  unfortunate  had  painfully  reached  Saint  Denis 
and  the  royal  court  only  to  end  her  miserable  existence.1 

In  the  case  of  a  man  whose  life  was  so  irregular,  whose  conduct 
was  evidently  so  little  influenced  by  any  motives  derived  from 
the  sanctions  of  religion — however  gay  and  cheery  he  may  have 
been,  however  brave  and  patient,  however  well  qualified  to  dis- 
charge the  functions  of  a  prince  struggling  to  rescue  his  own 
possessions  and  defend  the  lives  and  the  rights  of  conscience  of 
his  followers,  however  kingly  in  all  his  bearing — in  such  a  case,  it 
would  seem  almost  an  absurdity  to  speak  of  conversion  from  one 
religion  to  another.  The  change  involved  no  renunciation  of 
old  principles,  no  adoption  of  new  ones.  It  was  little  more  than 
the  parting  from  associates  of  long  standing,  the  severing  of  ex- 
ternal ties  such  as  even  the  most  thoughtless  cannot  altogether 
regard  as  indifferent.  And,  with  all  his  faults,  Henry  was  not 
thoughtless  or  inconsiderate.  He  had  carefully  weighed  the  tem- 
poral consequences  of  the  step  he  was  about  to  take,  balancing 
the  possible  dangers  of  a  Huguenot  combination  and  the  institu- 
tion of  a  new  protectorate,  against  the  more  real  and  immediate 
perils  likely  to  follow  from  a  further  delay  in  abjuring  the  Prot- 
estant faith.  If  his  decision  was  quickly  made,  and  so  suddenly 
announced  to  the  world  as  to  wear  the  appearance  of  precipi- 
tancy, it  was  none  the  less  the  deliberate  result  of  a  long  period 
of  calm  and  quiet  observation  of  the  necessary  drift  of  political 
events.  Certain  it  is  that  the  fear  lest  the  states  of  the  League 
might  be  on  the  eve  of  electing  a  rival  king — a  fear  which  the 
spirit  exhibited  by  the  Archbishop  of  Lyons  and  his  associates  in 
the  opening  sessions  of  the  Conference  of  Suresnes  transformed 
from  a  remote  apprehension  into  a  conviction  of  impending  dis- 


1  It  is  Lestoile,  in  his  journal,  under  date  of  the  end  of  1592  (ii.  107^. 
that  records  the  death  of  Madame  Esther,  a  discarded  mistress  of  Henry  IV.  at 
La  Rochelle,  who,  when  her  child  had  died,  came  to  Saint  Denis  in  the  vain 
hope  of  touching  the  king's  pity.  He  refused  even  to  see  her.  She  scarcely 
obtained  a  "  Huguenot"  burial. 


15113.  THE  ABJURATION.  345 

aster — led  him  to  carry  out  his  purpose,  long  since  formed,  with 
as  much  rapidity  as  ever  he  had  executed  a  manoeuvre  at  a  criti- 
cal moment  on  the  fields  of  Coutras  or  Ivry.  But  if  he  seemed 
surprised  or  hurried  by  the  course  of  events,  as  his  old  friends 
charitably  supposed  him  to  be,1  the  haste  was  rather  apparent 
than  actual.  Read  in  the  light  of  the  actual  Abjuration,  the 
repeated  professions  so  ostentatiously  made  by  Henry  at  inter- 
vals, both  before  and  since  his  accession  to  the  throne  of  France, 
of  his  readiness  to  be  instructed,  and  his  reiterations  of  the  state- 
ment that  he  was  not  obstinate,  point  but  too  distinctly  to  a 
matured  plan  of  which  only  the  time  of  the  fulfilment  was  an- 
ticipated. 

Meanwhile  the  King  was  anxious  lest,  in  conciliating  his  former 
enemies,  he  might  alienate  his  former  friends  to  such  a  degree 
as  to  compel  them  to  plan  measures  of  defence,  possibly  even 
to  elect  a  protector  of  their  churches,  in  place  of  him  who  was 
deserting  them.  For  this  reason  he  listened  to  the  suggestion 
of  the  Duke  of  Bouillon,  and  authorized  the  Boman  Catholic 
nobles  and  gentlemen  of  his  council  to  publish  a  formal  state- 
ment that,  pending  the  arrival  of  the  time  for  the  king's  "  in- 
struction," no  measures  should  be  adopted  to  the  prejudice  of 
the  rights  granted  to  the  Protestants  by  the  edicts  of  Henry 
the  Third,  or  of  the  good  union  and  friendship  existing  between 
the  loyal  Boman  Catholics  and  the  Huguenots.2    It  was  doubt- 


1  "  Tellement  que  le  roy,  se  trouvant  surpris  et  comme  opprime  de  ce  soub- 
dain  et  inopine  changement,  voyant  les  visaiges  et  les  cceurs  des  siens  alienez 
de  luy,  adverty  a  toute  heure  des  gouverneurs  et  des  places,  on  que  Ton  pra- 
ticquoit,  ou  qui  se  divertissoient  de  luy,  se  rezoleut,  tant  pour  eviter  ces  re- 
muemens,  que  pour  se  rendre  la  vole  plus  facile  a  son  establissement,  de  s'ac- 
commoder,  comme  il  feit  quelques  jours  apres,  a  l'Eglize  romaine."  Memoires 
de  Charlotte  Arbaleste  sur  la  vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  son  Mari,  i.  256. — 
Yet  even  Madame  Duplessis  Mornay  admits  that  it  seemed  to  many,  "par  la 
prompte  conclusion  qu'il  en  preit,  qu'il  ne  falloit  qu'une  preignante  occa- 
sion pour  l'y  jetter,  et  que  piec^a  elle  estoit  deliberee." 

s  The  "  Declaration  of  Mantes,"  dated  May  16,  1593,  was  signed  by  Fran- 
cois d'Orleans,  Count  of  St.  Pol,  Chancellor  Hurault,  Meru,  Bellegarde,  D'O, 
and  others.  See  the  text  in  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  v.  416,  417.  Com- 
pare Madame  Duplessis's  remarks,  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste,  i.  256, 
and  De  Thou,  viii.  259. 


346  THE   HUGUENOTS   AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.         Ch.  XIIL 

less  with  the  same  object  in  view  that  his  majesty,  about  this 

time,  sent  again  and   again  the  most  pressing  letters   to   Du- 

plessis  Mornay,  begging,  almost  commanding  him,  to 

treats  du-       intrust  to  safe  hands  the  City  of  Sauraur,  of  which 

plessis  Mor-       ..  .  .     , .  , 

nay  to  come  he  was  the  vigilant  governor,  and  come  to  court, 
if  only  for  a  few  days.  lie  had,  he  said,  important 
matters  concerning  religion  about  which  he  needed  his  ad- 
vice. Yet  before  the  Abjuration,  and  for  some  weeks  after, 
Duplessis  declined  to  come.  Had  the  king  been  wavering  and 
in  need  of  moral  or  religious  support,  nothing  would  have  de- 
tained him  an  instant.  But  Henry  had  evidently  made  up  his 
mind  fully  to  the  consummation  of  his  disloyal  act,  and  the 
sturdy  Huguenot  refused  to  become  a  witness,  and,  in  some 
sense,  an  abettor  of  the  disgraceful  proceeding.  Nothing,  in- 
deed, more  clearly  demonstrates  the  sincere  respect  entertained 
for  Duplessis  Mornay  by  the  king,  even  at  this  moment  of 
meditated  treachery  to  his  convictions,  than  do  his  reiterated 
messages.  Henry  even  appealed  to  him  as  a  soldier,  and,  when 
a  battle  seemed  imminent  before  Dreux,  summoned  him  to  take 
horse  on  receipt  of  his  letter,  and  come  diligently  with  his 
company  and  with  all  the  friends  he  could  muster,  lest  he 
should  be  among  the  last.  "  Remember,"  said  he,  "  that  at  the 
battle  of  Ivry  you  only  arrived  just  in  time.  What  annoyance 
would  you  have  experienced  if,  when  still  three  or  four  leagues 
distant,  you  had  had  tidings  of  the  battle  gained  without  you. 
Besides,  I  have  need  of  you  and  of  your  counsel  on  some  mat- 
ters which  present  themselves.  Therefore,  without  more 
cuses  or  delay,  come  and  use  diligence."  Six  weeks  later  he 
wrote:  "Monsieur  Duplessis,  I  have  written  you  so  often  to 
come,  and  you  have  not  done  it.  I  will  write  you  but  this  once, 
to  see  if  I  shall  be  obeyed.  Come,  therefore,  immediately  after 
having  provided  for  the  safety  of  your  post  during  your  ab- 
sence. Come  !  come  !  come  !  You  will  not  have  to  stay  here 
long."2     In  two  days  he  again  wrote  with  his  own  hand:   "  I 

1  Henry  IV.  to  Duplessis  Mornay,  Dreux,  June  25,  1593,  Memoires,  v.  465, 
466. 

3  The  same  to  the  same,  St.  Denis,  August  5,  1593,  ibid.,  v.  505. 


1593.  THE  ABJURATION.  347 

find  it  very  strange  that  a  number  of  persons  who  have  seen 
you  have  reported  to  me  that  you  complained  of  me,  and  I  find 
this  more  strange  in  you  than  in  any  one  else  ;  for,  besides  the 
fact  that  I  have  never  given  you  any  occasion,  and  have  loved 
you  more  than  any  other  gentleman  of  my  kingdom,  I  have  al- 
ways talked  with  you  so  freely,  that,  if  you  had  any  ground  of 
complaint,  you  ought  to  let  me  know,  or  come  to  tell  me  your- 
self, without  mentioning  it  to  anybody  else.  I  have  many 
times  written  to  you  to  come  to  me,  but  in  vain.  I  see  what  is 
the  reason.  You  love  the  general  interests  [of  the  Protestants] 
more  than  you  love  me.  Still  I  shall  always  be  both  your  good 
master  and  your  king.  Give  me  this  satisfaction  of  seeing  you, 
come  by  post  or  otherwise,  and  do  not  seek  further  excuses." ' 
When  a  week  had  passed,  he  again  wrote  to  the  same  effect;2 
and  when  a  fortnight  more  had  elapsed  without  Duplessis  Mor- 
nay's  arrival,  he  penned  another  autograph  missive.  "  Monsieur 
Duplessis,  I  am  wearied  with  constantly  writing  to  you  one  and 
the  same  thing.  I  desire  infinitely  to  see  you,  even  before  the 
coming  of  the  deputies,  who  are  to  come  with  Yicose,  and  for 
whom  I  have  sent  by  him.  Come !  I  have  so  much  need  of 
your  presence  that  I  cannot  do  without  it,  for  reasons  which  I 
cannot  state  in  writing.  Come,  yet  again  !  Your  tarrying  with 
me  will  be  but  a  few  days.  I  shall  be  glad  should  you  have 
taken  steps  to  satisfy  the  Swiss  ;  but  let  not  that  so  tie  you  down 
there  as  to  be  longer  in  coming."  And  the  postscript  again  was  : 
"  Come  !  come  !  come  !  if  you  love  me."  3 

If,  however,  Duplessis  was  resolute  in  declining  the  king's 

invitations,  there  was  one  point  upon  which  he  insisted  much 

in  his  letters  to  Henry,  and  which  he  secured.     The 

The  Prot-  .     .  J  ' 

estants  not  to  _r  rotestant  ministers  were  not  to  be  asked  to  be  pres- 
the  "instruc-  ent  at  an  unequal  combat.  Henry  yielded  to  the 
entreaties  of  Duplessis  Mornay  that,  if  his  majesty 
was  resolved  to  change  his  religion,  and  was  only  observing  an 
empty  form  in  such  a  conference  as  was  proposed  between  the 


1  Same  to  same,  Monceaux,  August  7,  1593,  ibid.,  v.  505,  506. 

2  Same  to  same,  St.  Denis,  August  15,  1593,  ibid.,  v.  514. 

3  Same  to  same,  Melun,  August  28,  1593,  ibid.,  v.  527,  528. 


048  THE   HUGUENOTS   AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.      Ch.  XIII. 

ministers  of  the  two  faiths,  lie  should  not  add  the  load  of  this 
fresh  crime  to  the  burden  his  conscience  already  bore.  For,  if 
he  should  surrender  himself  to  idolatry,  after  such  a  combat  in 
which  truth  could  not  be  overcome,  the  king  would,  said  Du- 
plessis  Mornay,  become  the  author  of  a  scandal  to  the  entire 
Christian  Church,  and  give  the  impression  that  he  had  yielded 
or  succumbed  inasmuch  as  he  had  seen  the  religion  which  he 
professed  fairly  refuted.1  None  the  less  did  the  Huguenot  ex- 
press his  own  determination  never  to  despair  of  his  master's 
recovery  so  long  as  a  breath  or  pulse  continued  ; 2  and,  writing 
to  M.  de  Lomenie,  not  many  days  after  the  king's  conversion, 
he  begged  him  to  say  to  Henry  :  "  If  ever  the  desire  shall  seize 
his  majesty  to  escape  from  the  spiritual  and  temporal  thraldom 
in  which  he  now  is,  I  cannot  indeed  grow  in  fidelity  to  his  ser- 
vice, but  certainly  I  shall  redouble  my  courage,  for  the  just  pain 
I  feel.  They  do  not  give  him  the  peace  of  state,  and  they  take 
away  his  peace  of  conscience.  They  do  not  reconcile  the  rebels, 
and  they  chill  his  most  faithful  servants.  The}7  do  not  restore  to 
him  his  kingdom  (for  it  is  God  and  not  the  devil  that  can  give 
it),  and,  so  far  as  in  them  lies,  they  make  him  renounce  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  I  groan  within  me  to  see  him  thus  served, 
thus  cheated,  thus  betrayed,  and  I  see  no  man  of  worth,  even 
among  the  Catholics  in  these  parts,  that  does  not  say  the  same 
thing."  3 

The  single-minded  and  pious  Huguenot  had  not  lost  all 
hope  that  his  master  might  yet  be  extricated  from  the  false 
Catharine  of  position  which  he  had  voluntarily  assumed.  And  it 
Bourbon.  wag  nQj.  otherwise  with  good  Catharine  of  Bourbon, 
a  princess  as  like  in  steadfastness  of  character  to  her  mother, 
Jeanne  d'Albret,  and  her  grandmother,  Margaret  of  Angou- 
leme,  as  was  her  brother  in  some  less  desirable  traits  to  his 
male  progenitors.  Upon  her  the  arguments  used  with  Henry 
were  thrown  away.     "  I  am  very  glad,"  she  wrote  to  Duplessis 

1  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste,  i.  258. 

2  "  Si  estime  je  de  nostre  debvoir,  comme  des  medecins,  de  l'assister  de  ce 
que  Dieu  a  mis  en  nous,  tant  que  le  pouls  lui  bat."  Lettre  de  M.  Duplessis  a 
plusieurs  ministres,  Saumur,  June  9,  1593,  Memoires,  v.  448. 

3  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Lomenie,  August  11,  1593,  Memoires,  v.  511. 


1593.  THE   ABJURATION.  349 

Mornay,  "  that  you  have  so  good  an  opinion  of  my  constancy,  in 
which  I  intend  so  to  persevere  that  neither  you  nor  any  of  those 
that  profess  the  same  faith  shall  be  disappointed.  It  is  the  sub- 
ject of  my  prayers  to  God  ;  and  you  may  well  believe  that  I 
employ  in  them  the  best  hours  of  the  day  and  the  night.  I 
doubt  not  that  the  change  of  which  you  hear  has  saddened  you. 
As  to  myself,  I  am  more  annoyed  than  I  can  describe.  But  I 
hope  that  God,  who  until  now  has  shown  us  so  many  evidences 
of  His  goodness,  will  not  forsake  us,  and  particularly  will  not 
forsake  him  who,  for  the  welfare  of  his  people,  does  not  fear  to 
abate  something  from  his  conscience,  which  I  assure  myself  God 
will  restore  to  him,  when  these  confusions  are  ended,  as  sound 
and  entire  as  ever  it  was."  r 

Meanwhile  the  last  scene  in  the  disgraceful  drama  was  at 
hand.  The  French  prelates,  convened  to  take  part  in  the  "  in- 
struction "  of  the  king,  had  decided,  not  without  the  passionate 
opposition  of  the  Cardinal  of  Bourbon,  that  they  were  compe- 
tent to  admit  his  majesty  into  the  communion  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  upon  profession  of  his  faith  and  repentance, 
without  waiting  for  the  pope's  absolution.2  Friday,  the  twenty- 
third  of  July,  had  been  appointed  by  Henry  as  the 

Henry's  "in-  "  ■*■  *■  J  J 

stmction."      day  upon  which,  in  his  quarters  at  Saint  Denis,  he 

July  23, 1593.  J        K.  ,  ^  n  ,   .        .  ,  ,     . 

would  listen  to  the  arguments  of  his  ghostly  advisers. 
He  had  signified  his  desire  that  to  four  or  five  prelates,  whom  he 
named,  might  be  committed  the  honorable  task  of  solving  his 
doubts — the  Archbishop  of  Bourges,  the  Bishops  of  Nantes, 
Chartres,  and  Mans,  and  the  Bishop-elect  of  Evreux.  The  last 
named  was  the  ingenious  and  eloquent  Du  Perron  ;  the  Bishop 
of  Chartres  was  the  moderate  Nicholas  de  Thou.  The  Cardinal 
of  Bourbon  had  sought  to  be  included  in  the  select  company, 
but  Henry  would  not  have  him.  On  that  point  he  was  firm, 
having  no  desire  to  have  a  spy  of  the  League  as  one  of  his  in- 
structors. And  as  he  had  little  compunction  in  improving  any 
occasion  that  offered  for  ridiculing  the  pretensions  of  his  igno- 


1  Catharine   de  Navarre   to  Duplessis,  July,  1593,  Memoires  de  Duplessis 
Mornay,  vi.  77. 

2  De  Thou,  viii.  (bk.  107)  304-307. 


350  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE      Ch.  XIIL 

rant  but  ambitious  cousin,  he  even  took  pains  to  inform  him 
that,  though  his  own  acquaintance  with  theological  subjects  was 
but  slight,  yet,  were  the  controversy  to  be  decided  by  Bourbon 
and  himself  alone,  he  would  have  no  trouble  in  securing  the 
victory  over  so  incompetent  an  opponent.1  In  truth,  however, 
notwithstanding  his  disclaimer,  Henry  was  no  contemptible  dis- 
putant on  such  subjects.  He  had  not  listened  to  so  many  Hu- 
guenot sermons  without  carrying  away  some  of  the  strong 
doctrine  upon  which  he  had  been  fed.  lie  had  not  been  an 
altogether  uninterested  auditor  of  those  sturdy  Huguenot  min- 
isters, as  fearless  in  debate  as  upon  the  battlefield,  with  whom 
he  had  long  consorted.  Gabriel  d'Amours  scarcely  used  hyper- 
bole when  he  rated  him  above  himself  in  theological  attain- 
ments. 

So  the  prelates  discovered,  in  the  course  of  their  five  hours' 
interview  with  his  majesty  ;  one  of  them  admitting,  the  next 
day,  that  he  had  never  seen  a  heretic  better  instructed  in  his 
error,  or  better  able  to  defend  it.2  Yet,  truth  to  say,  Henry 
made  no  great  effort.  He  had  little  desire  either  to  parade  his 
knowledge  or  to  conceal  the  fact  that  he  was  yielding  not  to 
the  acuteness  of  reasoning  of  his  opponents,  but  to  the  fancied 
logic  of  events.  We  may  even  give  him  credit  for  so  much 
of  lingering  loyalty  to  his  Protestant  convictions  as  that  lie 
desired  that  the  truths  he  had  hitherto  held  should  not  seem, 
to  any  intelligent,  man  who  could  read  below  the  surface,  to 
have  been  worsted  in  a  fair  and  honorable  fight.  The  fencer 
could  not  resist  the  temptation  to  make  so  rapid  and  accu- 
rate a  use  of  his  practised  rapier  as  to  reveal  the  fact  that  he 
was,  after  all,  making  but  a  feint  of  defence,  and  to  warn  all 
comers  not  to  press  him  overmuch.  He  was  willing  to  submit 
to  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  but  evidently 
that  was  all.  For  a  positive  statement  of  belief  in  doctrines 
which  he  deemed  absurd,  he  plainly  intimated  he  was  not  yet 
prepared.  In  some  cases  he  parried  a  thrust  with  an  apparently 
careless  jest.  When  the  prelates  came  to  the  matter  of  prayers 
for  the  dead,  he  exclaimed,  with  quiet  irony  :    "  Let  us  drop 

1  De  Thou,  viii.  (bk.  107)  308.  2  Lestoile.  ii.  160. 


1593.  THE  ABJURATION.  351 

the  '  Requiem.''  I  am  not  yet  dead,  and,  what  is  more,  I  have 
no  inclination  to  die."  He  said  that  he  accepted  the  doctrine 
of  Purgatory,  not  as  an  article  of  faith,  but  as  a  belief  of  the 
Church  whose  son  he  was,  and  to  please  his  instructors,  know- 
ing it  to  be  the  very  bread  upon  which  the  priests  subsist.  As 
the  discussion  went  on,  however,  the  tone  of  banter,  in  which 
he  occasionally  indulged,  was  dropped,  and  the  pathos  lurking 
beneath  revealed  itself.  The  cardinal  doctrine  of  transubstan- 
tiation  and  the  adoration  of  the  wafer  were  reached.  Here  the 
delay  was  long.  At  last  Henry  yielded,  but  not  without  visible 
emotion.  "  You  do  not  content  me  fully  on  this  point,"  he 
said.  "  You  do  not  satisfy  me  as  I  desired,  and  as  I  had  prom- 
ised myself  that  I  should  be  satisfied  by  your  instruction.  Here, 
then,  I  place  my  soul  this  day  in  your  hands.  I  pray  you,  take 
good  care  ;  for  where  you  make  me  enter,  thence  I  shall  go  out 
only  through  death.  This  I  swear  and  protest."  As  he  said 
it,  tears  came  to  his  eyes.1  Presently  he  became  calmer.  He 
thanked  the  prelates  for  their  pains,  he  professed  to  have  had 
many  difficulties  cleared  away,  and  intimated  his  readiness  to 
accept  their  conclusions.2  But  when,  taking  advantage  of  his 
favorable  inclinations,  the  archbishop  and  his  associates  pre- 
sented to  him  a  confession  of  faith  in  which  he  was  to  declare 
his  belief  in  every  particular  dogma  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,3  the  king  warned  them  that  they  were  in  danger  of  go- 
ing farther  and  faring  worse.  The  next  day  he  sent  again  for 
them,  and  again  remonstrated  with  them.  Emphasizing  the 
doctrine  of  Purgatory  in  particular,  he  declared  that  most  of 


1  Lestoile,  ubi  supra. 

2  See  the  "  Proces-verbal  de  la  ceremonie  de  l'abjuration  d'Henry  IV,"  au- 
thenticated by  the  signature  of  the  Dean  of  Beauvais,  appointed  secretary  by 
the  prelates.  It  is  reprinted  in  Cimber  et  Anjou,  Archives  curieuses,  xiii. 
343-351.  "  Discours  des  ceremonies  observees  a  la  conversion  du  tres-grand 
et  tres-belliqueux  Prince,  Henry  IV,  Roy  de  France  et  de  Navarre,  a  la  re- 
ligion Catholique,  Apostolique  et  Romaine."  Reprinted  in  Memoires  de  la 
Ligue,  v.  403. 

3  Sully,  (Economies  royales,  c.  40  (i.  387).  With  regard  to  the  form  of  this 
paper,  see  the  judicious  note  of  a  writer  who  has  made  the  most  satisfactory 
study  of  the  abjuration  in  all  its  bearings,  E.  Stahelin,  Uebertritt  Konig 
Heinrichs  IV.,  610-612. 


352      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XUI. 

them  did  not  themselves  believe  it.  Indeed,  he  pointedly  asked 
them :  "  Do  you  believe  that  there  is  such  a  place  ? "  The 
question  received  no  answer,  the  prelates  conveniently  turning 
the  conversation  to  another  topic.1  But  the  king's  warning 
took  effect.  Henry  was  only  required  to  express  his  assent  to 
a  shorter  formulary  of  a  more  general  character.  It  was  quite 
enough.  All  the  prelates  really  needed  was  his  majesty's  sub- 
mission to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Why  be  more  partic- 
ular in  exacting  from  the  new-comer  a  profession  of  positive 
faith  in  every  detail  of  doctrine,  than  in  requiring  such  a  defi- 
nite avowal  from  the  Church's  ancient  followers  ?  Sincerity  was 
the  exception,  not  the  rule,  with  the  latter ;  could  the  proselyte 
who  virtually  confessed  that  political  circumstances  had  done 
more  than  all  the  arguments  of  the  doctors  in  bringing  him 
over,  be  expected  to  do  better  than  the  native-born  Romanist  I 
It  was  sufficient  for  Henry  to  accept  in  the  simplest  form  the 
yoke  which  the  loyal  Roman  Catholics  of  his  suite  wished  to 
place  upon  his  neck,  to  sign  a  short  paragraph  or  two,  to  be 
seen  at  mass — meanwhile  believing  just  as  much  or  as  little  of 
the  Romish  system  of  faith  as  he  pleased.  No  chaplain  or 
confessor  would  be  likely  to  trouble  his  august  penitent  in  fu- 
ture years  by  attempting  to  pry  very  narrowly  into  the  tenets 
actually  held  in  the  inner  sanctuary  of  his  breast.  On  such 
subjects,  as  well  as  in  the  domain  of  private  morals,  Henry 
would  henceforth  enjoy  greater  immunity  from  reproof  than 
he  had  hitherto  enjoyed  when  a  D' Amours,  among  the  min- 
isters, or  a  Duplessis  Mornay,  among  laymen,  had,  with  the 
characteristic  Huguenot  boldness,  held  up  his  sins  before  his 
eyes.  The  scantiness  of  the  king's  actual  profession  might, 
moreover,  be  compensated  for  by  a  more  ample  paper,  meant 
for  foreign  circulation,  and,  if  not  actually  signed  by  Henry,  yet 
authenticated  by  his  secretary,  Lomenie,  an  adept  in  imitating 
his  master's  handwriting.2     So  early  did  Henry  the  Fourth  be- 


1  Lestoile,  ubi  supra. 

2  "  Man  weiss,  dass  der  Konig  dem  Papste  bewilligte,  was  er  den  Biscli  >fen 
versagte,  und  dass  eben  die  zuruckgewiesene  Schrift  als  das  Glaubensbe- 
kenntniss  Heinrichs  IV.  nach  Rom  abging — freilich  nicht  von  ihm  selber 


1593.  THE  ABJURATION.  353 

gin  to  imitate  the  example  of  his  Very  Christian  and  Very 
Catholic  predecessors,  and  attempt  to  palm  off  upon  a  Curia, 
itself  not  altogether  inexperienced  in  such  devices,  a  fraudulent 
document  which  might  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  pontiff. 

Even  to  the  last  moment  the  king  was  uneasy,  restless,  ap- 
prehensive. "  On  Sunday  I  shall  take  the  perilous  leap  !  "  he 
wrote,  late  on  Friday,  to  his  mistress,  Gabrielle  d'Estrees.1  On 
Saturday  he  took  pains  to  gather  about  him  all  the  prominent 
men  of  his  court,  and,  in  a  speech  of  studied  calmness,  an- 
nounced his  intentions  and  threw  himself  upon  the  support 
of  his  loyal  subjects.2  Again,  that  very  day,  he  renewed  his 
promise  to  some  Protestant  ministers  to  continue  their  friend, 
and  again  asked  them  to  pray  for  him ;  while,  upon  the  very 
morning  of  the  day  that  was  to  witness  his  public  reception  into 
the  communion  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  Huguenot 
minister  La  Faye  was  admitted  into  the  bedchamber  before 
the  king's  rising,  and  had  a  private  conference  with  his  majesty, 
whose  tears  and  frequent  embraces  betrayed  the  perturbed  con- 
dition of  his  mind.3 

It  was  eight  or  nine  o'clock,  on  the  morning  of  Sunday,  the 
twenty-fifth  of  July,  1593,  when  Henry  the  Fourth  left  his 
Henry  abjures  lodgings  at  Saint  Denis  for  the  ancient  abbey  church 
sahit  DaenXm"  where  his  "  reconciliation  "  was  to  be  formally  effect- 
juiy  25, 1593.  e(j  jje  wore  a  white-satin  doublet  and  white-satin 
hose ;  his  hat  and  the  cloak  thrown  over  his  shoulders  were 
black.  His  escort  was  a  crowd  of  nobles,  officers  of  the  crown, 
and  simple  gentlemen  who  had  flocked  to  witness  the  welcome 
sight.  Before  him  marched  his  Swiss,  Scotch,  and  French 
guards,  with  beating  drum,  while  twelve  trumpeters  announced 
his  coming  with  loud  and  piercing  notes.  The  streets  were  full 
of  people  frantic  with  joy  and  filling  the  air  with  shouts  of 
"  Long  life  to  the  King !  "   The  inhabitants  of  the  little  town  of 

unterschrieben,  sondern  nach  einer  pia  fraus  nur  durch  seiner  Sekretar  de 
Lomenie,  der  die  Handschrift  der  Konigs  auf  das  Beste  nachzuahmen  ver- 
stand.1'     Stahelin,  611. 

1  "  Ce  sera  dimanche  que  je  ferai  le  sault  perilleus."    Lestoile,  ii.  160. 

2  Memoires  de  Claude  Groulart,  559,  560. 

3  Lestoile,  ii.  161. 

Vol.  II.— 23 


354  THE  HUGUENOTS   AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.      Cn    XIIL 

Saint  Denis  were  outnumbered  by  the  Parisians  of  every  rank, 
who,  in  defiance  of  the  express  orders  given  by  the  heads  of  the 
League,  had  come  out  to  see  the  event  with  their  own  eyes. 
Flowers  strewn  in  the  way,  tapestry  hung  from  the  walls,  gave 
the  scene  the  appearance  of  a  triumphal  march.  The  abbey 
church  itself  was  similarly  decorated.  Within  the  portal,  seated 
in  a  chair  of  white  damask,  embroidered  with  the  combined 
arms  of  France  and  Navarre,  sat  the  Archbishop  of  Bonrges 
awaiting  the  king's  arrival.  Cardinal  Bourbon,  a  number  of 
other  prelates,  and  all  the  monks  of  Saint  Denis  attended  him 
— the  cardinal  with  a  cross  and  a  copy  of  the  Holy  Gospel  in  his 
hands.  "  Who  are  you  ? "  asked  the  archbishop  of  the  approach- 
ing monarch.  "  I  am  the  king,"  was  the  reply.  "  What  do 
you  desire  ? "  again  asked  the  archbishop.  "  I  desire,"  said 
Henry,  "  to  be  received  within  the  pale  of  the  Roman,  Catholic, 
and  Apostolic  Church."  "  Do  you  so  wish  ?  "  pursued  the  prel- 
ate. "  Yes,"  answered  the  king,  "  I  so  wish  and  desire."  And 
kneeling  down  at  that  instant  he  pronounced  these  words  :  M  I 
protest  and  swear,  in  the  presence  of  Almighty  God,  that  I  will 
live  and  die  in  the  Roman,  Catholic,  and  Apostolic  religion,  that 
I  will  protect  and  defend  it  against  all  persons,  at  the  risk  of  my 
blood  and  life,  renouncing  all  heresies  contrary  to  the  doctrines 
of  the  said  Roman,  Catholic,  and  Apostolic  Church."  The 
archbishop  had  advanced  a  step  or  two.  The  king  handed 
him  his  profession  of  faith,  kissed  the  ring  upon  the  prelate's 
hand,  and  then  and  there  received  the  church's  absolution  and 
blessing.  This  over,  the  royal  penitent  was  helped  to  rise  from 
his  knees,  and,  not  without  difficulty  for  the  press,  proceeded  to 
the  grand  altar  of  the  church.  Again  kneeling  before  it,  he  re- 
peated a  second  time,  upon  the  Holy  Gospels,  the  oath  he  had 
taken  at  the  portal.  Amid  deafening  cries  of  "  Vive  le  roi ! " 
incessantly  ringing  through  the  sacred  edifice,  he  again  rose, 
ascended  the  steps,  crossed  himself,  and  kissed  the  altar.  Then 
came  the  swelling  music  of  the  grand  "  Te  Deum  landamus." 
Behind  the  altar,  the  king  was  heard  in  confession  by  the  arch- 
bishop ;  next  he  returned  into  the  presence  of  the  people  to 
take  part  in  the  solemnities  of  the  mass,  beating  upon  his  breast 
and  prostrating  himself  at  the  elevation  of  the  host.     The  ser- 


1593.  THE  ABJURATION.  355 

vice  over  and  the  royal  largesse  made,  according  to  custom, 
within  the  church,  Henry  was  escorted  home  with  blare  of 
trumpets  and  with  salvos  of  artillery  which  were  heard,  to  the 
consternation  of  the  League,  in  Paris  itself.1  The  people  had 
seen  the  king  at  the  mass.  The  only  Huguenot  who  ever  sat 
upon  the  throne  of  France  had  denied  his  convictions,  and  out- 
wardly embraced  a  religion  which,  in  his  heart,  he  neither  loved 
nor  respected.  It  remained  to  be  seen,  whether  to  the  king 
who  had  made  the  ignoble  purchase,  or  to  the  nation  wThose 
representative  nobles  had  exacted  the  price  and  connived  at  the 
sacrifice  of  truth  and  honor,  the  City  of  Paris,  soon  to  open  its 
gates,  was  in  reality  worth  the  costly  mass  paid  for  it. 

The  news  of  the  abjuration  produced  in  the  minds  of  honest 

men,  far  and  near,  the  most  painful  impression.     Politicians 

might  applaud  an  act  intended  to  conciliate  the  favor  of  the 

great  majority  of  the  nation,  and  extol  the  astuteness  of  the 

kins;  in  choosing  the  most  opportune  moment  for  his 

Public  opinion  &  ,°  rr 

respecting  the  change  or  religion — the  moment  when  he  would  se- 
cure the  support  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  fatigued 
by  the  length  of  the  wrar  and  too  eager  for  peace  to  question 
very  closely  the  sincerity  of  the  king's  motives,  without  forfeit- 
ing the  support  of  the  Huguenots.  But  men  of  conscience, 
judging  Henry's  conduct  by  a  standard  of  morality  immutable 
and  eternal,  passed  a  severe  sentence  of  condemnation  upon 
the  most  flagrant  instance  of  a  betrayal  of  moral  convictions 
which  the  age  had  known.  It  was  a  Roman  Catholic  and  a 
persistent  royalist  who,  on  hearing  of  the  strange  event  of  Saint 
Denis,  exclaimed  to  another  of  the  same  religious  and  political 
sentiments :  "  Ah,  my  friend !  The  king  is  lost !  Now  he  is 
deserving  of  death,  which  he  never  was  before."     It  was  a  bishop 

1  The  contemporary  pamphlet  entitled  "  Discours  des  ceremonies  observees 
a,  la  conversion  du  tres-grand  et  tres-belliqueux  Prince,  Henry  IV,  Roy  de 
France  et  de  Navarre,  a  la  Religion  Catholique,  Apostolique  et  Romaine,"  to 
which  I  have  already  referred,  may  be  considered  the  best  authority  for  this 
portion,  of  the  history  of  the  abjuration.  De  Thou,  Davila,  the  Recueil  des 
choses  memorables,  Lestoile,  the  official  account  signed  by  the  Dean  of  Beau- 
vais  (reprinted  in  Cimber  et  Danjou,  Archives  curieuses,  xiii.  343-351),  etc., 
may  also  be  consulted  to  advantage. 


356  THE   HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY   OF  NAVARRE.      Cil  XIII. 

of  the  established  church  who  deplored  the  abjuration  in  these 
words :  "  I  am  a  Catholic  in  life  and  in  profession,  and  the 
king's  very  faithful  subject  and  servant.  Such  I  shall  ever  live, 
such  I  shall  die.  Yet  I  should  have  deemed  it  quite  as  good, 
nay,  better,  that  the  king  had  remained  in  his  religion,  rather 
than  change  it  as  he  has  done.  In  the  matter  of  conscience  we 
have  a  God  above  who  is  our  Judge.  Regard  for  II im  alone 
ought  to  influence  the  conscience  of  kings,  not  regard  for  king- 
doms, and  crowns,  and  the  forces  of  men.  I  look  only  for  dis- 
aster as  the  consequence  of  this."  ' 

From  across  the  Channel,  Henry's  faithful  ally  added  a  voice 

of  frank,  though  affectionate,  remonstrance.     Queen  Elizabeth, 

in  the  first  transports  of  her  indignation,   had  been  disposed 

summarily  to  recall  from  France  every  soldier  she  had 

Letter  of 

Queen  Eliza-  sent  thither,  and  to  withhold  from  the  French  king  all 
aid  for  the  future.2  In  a  calmer  moment,  when  less 
incensed  but  not  less  deeply  grieved,  she  wrote  the  following 
letter,  with  her  own  hand,  in  acknowledgment  of  a  message 
received  through  Henry's  special  envoy,  M.  de  Morlas : 

"  Ah  !  what  sorrow,  what  regrets,  and  what  groans  have  I  felt 
in  my  soul,  at  the  sound  of  the  tidings  which  Morlas  has  brought 
me!  My  God  !  Is  it  possible  that  any  worldly  consideration 
can  have  effaced  the  terror  denounced  by  the  Divine  wrath  ? 
Can  we,  even  according  to  reason,  look  for  a  good  sequel  to  so 
iniquitous  an  act  ? 

"  Can  you  imagine  that  He  who  has  sustained  and  preserved 
you  by  His  hand  would  permit  you  to  walk  alone  in  your  great- 
est need  ?  It  is  a  perilous  thing  to  do  evil  that  good  may  come. 
Still  I  hope  that  a  more  healthy  inspiration  may  come  to  you. 
Meanwhile,  I  shall  not  cease  to  place  you  in  the  foremost  rank 
of  my  devotions,  in  order  that  the  hands  of  Esau  may  not  spoil 
the  blessings  of  Jacob.  Whereas  you  promise  me  all  friend- 
ship and  faithfulness,  I  confess  that  I  have  dearly  merited  them, 
nor  shall  I  repent,  provided  you  do  not  change  your  Father 

1  Lestoile,  ii.  164. 

2  See  the  correspondence  of  Beauvoir  la  Node,  French  ambassador  in  Eng- 
land, MSS.,  State  Paper  Office,  apud  Motley,  United  Netherlands,  iii.  253. 


1593.  THE   ABJURATION.  357 

(otherwise  I  shall  be  to  you  but  a  bastard  sister  on  the  Father's 
side)  ;  for  I  shall  always  love  the  natural  better  than  the  adopted. 
God  knows  it  is  so,  and  may  He  guide  you  in  the  right  way. 
Your  very  confident  sister,  sire,  if  it  be  after  the  old  fashion  ; 
with  the  new  I  will  have  nothing  to  do.  Elizabeth  K."  ' 

"  It  is  a  perilous  thing  to  do  evil  that  good  may  come  !  "  The 
English  queen  could  not  have  expressed  more  tersely  her  warn- 
ing to  Henry  the  Fourth ;  she  could  not  have  enunciated  more 
distinctly  a  principle  of  such  uniform  application  that  one  need 
go  no  farther  than  to  Henry  himself  to  find,  in  his  own  person, 
in  his  posterity,  and  in  the  country  over  which  he  reigned, 
sufficient  illustration  of  its  truth. 

The  abjuration  has  not  been  without  its  apologists  from  the 
date  of  its  occurrence  down  to  our  own  days.  There  will  prob- 
ably be  no  lack  of  them  in  time  to  come.  In  France  herself  it  is 
one  of  the  most  disastrous  results  of  the  act  that  it  has  lowered 
the  tone  of  political  morality,  by  substituting  for  the  inflexible 
rule  of  duty  a  more  convenient  and  variable  standard  of  tempo- 
rary expediency.  Doubtless  Henry  veiled  from  his  own  eyes, 
and,  so  far  as  he  could,  from  the  eyes  of  others,  the  deformity 
of  the  deed  he  committed,  by  investing  it  with  the  garb  of  a 
signal  advantage  to  be  derived,  not  so  much  by  himself  as  by  his 
kingdom.  And  ever  since  there  have  been  those  who  have  not 
wearied  of  exalting  his  conduct,  when,  forsooth,  he  sacrificed 
personal  religious  belief  upon  the  altar  of  national  unity,  into  a 
brilliant  exhibition  of  the  virtue  of  self-abnegation.  It  may, 
however,  well  be  questioned  whether  the  king  was  mainly  in- 
spired by  any  such  elevated  patriotism  as  is  here  supposed,  and 

1  This  striking  letter,  which  I  translate,  is  a  proof  that,  if  Queen  Elizabeth's 
French  accent  was  so  odd  as  to  expose  her  to  some  ridicule,  she  wrote  the  lan- 
guage forcibly  and  well.  See  Read,  Henri  IV  et  le  ministre  Chamier,  93. 
Copies  of  the  letter  are  to  be  found  in  the  Colbert  MSS.  of  the  National  Li- 
brary of  Paris,  vol.  16  ;  in  the  Dupuy  MSS.,  vol.  121,  in  the  Archives  of  the 
Council  of  State,  Geneva,  No.  2183,  and  in  the  Cottonian  MSS.,  British  Mu- 
seum, Titus  C.  7,  161.  This  last  gives  the  date  as  November  12,  1593.  M. 
Read  (ubi  supra,  and  in  the  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de  l'histoire  du  Protestant- 
isme  francais,  vii.  263,  264)  has  given  a  more  correct  transcript  of  the  original 
than  M.  Capefigue. 


358  THE   HUGUENOTS   AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.      Ch.  XIIL 

whether  a  monarch  with  whom  cool  calculation  of  private  ad- 
vantage was  a  constant  trait  of  character  really  entertained 
views  so  disinterested.  "  It  is  the  usual  artifice  of  bad  passions," 
an  eminent  historian  of  our  own  times  has  aptly  remarked,  when 
writing  on  another  but  a  kindred  theme,  "  to  ascribe  the  cruel 
gratifications  in  which  they  indulge  themselves  either  to  some 
great  idea  whose  accomplishment  they  are  pursuing  or  to  the 
absolute  necessity  of  success."  But  he  justly  adds,  "History 
would  dishonor  herself  did  she  accept  these  lying  excuses.  It  is 
her  duty  to  refer  the  evil  to  its  source,  and  to  restore  to  the  vices 
of  men  what  belongs  to  them."  ! 

If  there  be  any  who,  after  a  dispassionate  perusal  of  the  story 
of  Henry's  renunciation  of  the  faith  of  his  childhood,  still  hold 
to  the  opinion  that  the  insincere  action  was,  under  the  circum- 
stances, deserving  of  approbation  rather  than  censure,  the  his- 
torian may  well  doubt  his  ability  to  move  them  from  their  posi- 
tion. He  might,  indeed,  point  out  the  unhappy  consequences 
evidencing  themselves  in  the  gradual  but  sure  degeneracy  of  the 
king,  and  in  the  disasters  that  overtook  the  dynasty  of  which  he 
was  the  founder  ;  he  might  draw  upon  his  fancy  to  construct  a 
picture  of  what  France  would  possibly  have  been,  had  the  mon- 
arch but  been  true  to  himself  and  to  his  real  belief.  But,  after 
all,  the  question  in  hand  is  not  so  much  a  historical  inquiry  as  a 
problem  of  ethics  from  whose  unalterable  decisions  there  is  no 
appeal.  In  the  estimation  of  the  just,  however,  enlightened  by 
'  the  lessons  of  experience,  the  path  of  truth  and  fidelity  to  prin- 
ciple is  not  only  the  path  of  duty  ;  it  is  always  the  course  of 
true  safety.2 

1  Guizot,  Histoire  de  la  Republique  d'Angleterre  et  de  Cromwell,  i.  05. 

2  'Op&fcf  aX-rj^ei'  atl.,  Soph.  Ant.,  1195.  Sir  James  Stephen  has  thoughtfully 
discussed  the  abjuration  of  Henry  IV.  in  the  sixteenth  of  his  Lectures  on  the 
History  of  France.  No  impartial  student  of  the  pa>t  will  hesitate  to  conclude, 
with  the  Cambridge  professor,  that  the  day  of  the  king's  "impious,  because 
pretended,  conversion  was  among  the  dies  nefasti  of  his  country." 


1593.  THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  35  i) 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   EDICT   OF   NANTES. 

The  events  that  occurred  at  Saint  Denis,  as  recorded  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  render  it  proper  that  the  history  should,  from 
this  point  forward,  assume  a  somewhat  different  type, 
character  of  Until  the  Abjuration  the  fortunes  of  the  Huguenots 
had  been  inseparably  connected  with  the  personal 
successes  and  reverses  of  Henry  the  Fourth.  However  imper- 
fect an  exponent  the  king  was  of  the  moral  and  religious  life  of 
the  French  Protestants,  however  fickle  and  selfish  his  zeal,  how- 
ever prone  his  disposition  to  subordinate  Huguenot  interests 
to  his  own,  he  was  still  the  nominal  head  of  the  party,  the  sol- 
emnly elected  Protector  of  the  Reformed  Churches,  as,  during 
previous  reigns,  he  had  been  the  recognized  mouth-piece  of  their 
complaints  and  their  demands.  A  prince  of  the  blood,  the  appar- 
ently remote  prospect  that  he  might  one  day  'be  summoned  to 
the  throne  had  been  a  sufficient  pretext  for  the  institution  of  the 
most  formidable  conspiracy  against  the  established  order  ever 
set  on  foot  in  France ;  and  this  merely  because  of  the  fact  that 
he  was  a  Protestant  who,  after  his  compulsory  renunciation  of 
his  religion,  at  the  time  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's 
Day,  had,  when  left  to  himself,  resumed  its  profession.  The 
circumstance  that  the  desperate  struggle,  which  he  had  waged 
for  four  years  previous  to  his  accession,  was  forced  upon  him 
because  of  his  Protestant  creed  has  made  the  record  of  his  vic- 
tories and  defeats  germane  to  the  story  of  those  more  truly 
religious  men  whom  similar  reasons  led  to  fight  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  him. 

His  abjuration  alters  the  situation  essentially.  The  historian 
of  Huguenot  affairs  may  now  be  excused  from  the  attempt  to 
chronicle  all  the  remaining  incidents  of  the  reign  of  a  king  who 


360     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XIV. 

has  become  a  stranger  to  Protestantism,  and  may  be  allowed  to 
refer  the  curious  to  the  pages  of  works  more  general  in  their 
scope. 

It  is  true  that  Henry  himself  failed,  at  first,  to  comprehend 
the  full  import  of  the  change  he  had  made.     He  still  claimed 

to  be  a  Huguenot ;  though  what  a  Roman  Catholic 
claims  to  be     Huguenot  might  be,  he  did  not  explain.     He  denied 

that  he  had  changed  his  faith.  When  a  courtier  in- 
formed him  of  the  fact  that  a  certain  person  had  been  of  the 
religion  which  his  majesty  formerly  held  and  had  recently  ab- 
jured, the  king  took  him  up  sharply.  "  What  religion  do  you 
say  I  held  ?  I  have  never  known,  nor  do  I  now  know,  any  but 
one  Catholic  religion  !  I  am  not  a  Jew  !  "  He  did  not  even 
take  care  to  hide  his  affection  for  certain  things  which  served  as 
badges  of  Huguenot  belief.  Passing  through  his  sister's  rooms, 
and  finding  the  company  engaged  in  singing  the  psalms  of 
Marot  and  Beza,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  join  in  with  his  own 
voice.2  No  wonder  that  the  inconsistency  was  eagerly  laid  hold 
of  by  unfriendly  preachers  in  the  interest  of  the  League,  and 
paraded  before  the  eyes  of  the  people  as  proof  positive  of  his 
majesty's  hypocrisy.  "  Is  it  not  notorious,''  exclaimed  the  gray 
friar  Guarinus,  "that  although  Henry  of  Bourbon  goes  to  mass, 
he  nevertheless  is  accustomed  to  sing, 

4  Quiconque  se  fie  en  Dieu  jamais  lie  perira  ? ' "  3 

1  Lestoile,  ii.  212. 

2  Ibid.,  under  date  of  Sunday,  March  2,  1597,  ii.  281.  Vanmesnil  and  others 
were  singing  Psalm  79,  "  Les  gens  entrez  sont  en  ton  heritage."  Madame  de 
Monceaux  (Gabrielle  d'Estrees)  begged  the  monarch  to  stop,  and  placed  h^r 
hand  on  his  mouth.  This  led  some  of  those  present  to  exclaim  in  a  low- 
voice  :  "  Do  you  see  that  wretched  woman  (cette  vilaine)  who  wants  to  prevent 
the  king  from  singing  God's  praises  ?  " 

3  Ibid.,  ii.  191.  The  last  lines  of  Theodore  Beza's  version  of  the  thirty-fourth 
psalm  are  intended,  which,  however,  more  correctly  are, 

"  Quiconque  espere  au  Dieu  vivant 
Jamais  ne  perira." 

If  we  may  believe  Lestoile,  Friar  Guarinus,  when  discovered  at  the  time  of 
the  surrender  of  Paris  (March,  1594),  in  his  place  of  concealment,  a  garret,  fell 
down  on  his  knees  and  humbly  promised  his  captor  that,  if  spared,  he  would 
preach  as  zealously  for  the  king  as  he  had  hitherto  preached  against  him. 


1595.  THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  301 

Nor  was  this  the  only  indication  of  the  king's  lingering  fond- 
ness for  the  church  he  had  left.  Whenever  he  met  one  of  his 
sister's  Huguenot  ministers,  he  made  it  his  practice  to  take  him 
apart  and  whisper  in  his  ear  such  requests  as,  "  Pray  to  God  in 
my  behalf  !     Do  not  forget  me  in  your  prayers."  ' 

It  cannot,  however,  be  denied  that,  as  time  advanced,  such 

manifestations  diminished  in  frequency,  and  Henry  came  more 

and  more  to  a  conscious  recognition  of  the  gulf  which 

His  occasional  °  .        °  , 

anxiety  of  had  opened  between  his  Huguenot  subjects  and  him- 
self. Sometimes  the  enormity  of  the  crime  he  had 
committed  in  sacrificing  his  religious  convictions  impressed  him 
deeply,  and  he  became  the  victim  of  deep  dejection.  This  was 
particularly  the  case  when,  having  fallen  ill  at  the  time  of 
the  prolonged  siege  of  La  Fere,  he  summoned  to  his  bedside 
a  Huguenot  nobleman  whose  bluntness  of  speech  had  more 
than  once  given  him  deep  offence.  It  was  the  same  Agrippa 
d'Aubigne  who,  not  long  before,  after  his  majesty  had  been 
wounded  in  the  lip  by  the  misdirected  knife  of  Jean  Chastel, 
gave  him  the  significant  warning :  "  Sire,  God,  whom  you  have 
as  yet  abandoned  only  with  your  lips,  has  contented  Himself 
with  piercing  your  lips.  But  when  the  heart  shall  have  re- 
nounced Him,  He  will  pierce  the  heart."  2  The  Huguenot  on 
the  present  occasion  found  his  old  captain  agitated  by  a  strange 
solicitude.  Having  shut  himself  in  with  Agrippa  alone,  and 
after  shedding  many  tears  and  more  than  once  kneeling  in 
prayer  to  God  Almighty,  Henry  adjured  him,  in  view  of  the 
many  caustic  but  useful  truths  he  had  heard  from  his  mouth, 
to  answer  him  frankly  this  momentous  question  :  Whether  he 
believed  that  by  his  change  of  religion  he  had  committed  the 
sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  ?     In  vain  D'Aubigne  excused  him- 


1  Lestoile  (under  date  of  May,  1595),  ii.  263. 

5  "  Sire,  Dieu  que  vous  n'avez  encores  delaisse  que  des  levres,  s'est  contente 
de  les  percer  ;  mais  quand  le  coeur  le  renoncera  il  percera  le  coeur."  Agrippa 
d'Aubigne,  Histoire  universelle,  iii.  377.  In  his  Memoires  (Edition  Pantheon, 
502),  Agrippa  repeats  the  incident  with  slight  variations.  He  adds  that,  while 
Henry  seemed  not  to  take  the  remark  amiss,  his  mistress,  the  fair  Gabrielle, 
exclaimed:  "What  fine  words,  but  badly  employed !  "  "Yes,  madam,"  he 
replied,  ' '  because  they  will  be  of  no  use. " 


362      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIV. 

self  from  undertaking  to  answer,  and  begged  permission  to  call 
in  a  minister  to  solve  his  master's  scruples.  Henry  insisted 
upon  an  immediate  reply,  which  D'Aubigne  made  as  best  he 
could,  setting  forth  in  a  simple  manner  the  four  elements  which 
he  deemed  essential  characteristics  of  the  unpardonable  sin, 
and  leaving  to  the  king  the  sole  responsibility  of  determining 
for  himself  whether  the  description  applied  to  him.1  The  in- 
terview lasted  full  four  hours,  and  was  frequently  interrupted 
by  fervent  prayers  uttered  by  the  monarch  in  his  own  behalf. 
But  nothing  came  of  it.  On  the  morrow  Henry's  indisposi- 
tion was  relieved,  and  he  never  alluded  to  the  subject  again.3 

But  Henry  had  become  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  only  those 
events  of  his  subsequent  history  are  entitled  to  a  place  here 
that  are  necessary  to  a  complete  understanding  of  the  difficul- 
ties and  delays  still  besetting  the  Huguenot  struggle  for  some 
measure  of  religious  liberty,  if  not  for  an  unattainable  equality 
in  the  sight  of  the  law. 

The  opposition  of  the  League  to  the  king's  claims  had  lost 
its  only  specious  pretext  when  the  king  forsook  his  alleged 
heresy  ;  yet  that  opposition  still  continued.  In  fact,  the  des- 
peration engendered  by  the  conviction  that  sooner  or  later  a 
Roman  Catholic  prince  of  undoubted  legitimacy  must  prevail 
led  to  excesses  even  greater  than  had  hitherto  been 
virulence  of  witnessed.  Such  preachers  as  Boucher  grew  more 
outrageous  in  the  use  of  scurrilous  language  from  the 
pulpit.  Henry  of  Bourbon  fared  little  better  at  their  hands 
than  Henry  of  Yalois  had  fared.     They  proclaimed  his  con- 


1  They  were,  1st,  a  knowledge  of  the  sin  when  committing  it  ;  2d,  having 
extended  a  hand  to  the  spirit  of  error  and  repelled  with  the  other  hand  the 
spirit  of  truth;  3d,  the  absence  of  repentance;  and,  4th.  despair  of  God'? 
mercy. 

'2  There  seems,  at  first  sight,  to  be  a  serious  discrepancy  between  the  two  ac- 
counts given  of  this  interview  by  Agrippa  d'Aubigne  ;  for.  whereas  the  His- 
toire  universelle  states  that  it  was  at  Travecy  that  Henry  fell  dangerously  ill, 
and  by  implication  places  the  scene  of  the  conversation  at  this  village,  the 
Memoires  make  him  to  have  been  at  death's  door  at  Monceaux  when  visited 
by  the  Huguenot  captain.  But  Travecy  is  a  village  just  north  of  La  Fere,  and 
by  the  Monceaux  in  question  is  undoubtedly  meant  the  place  now  known 
as  Monceau  les-Leups,  somewhat  farther  toward  the  east.      Both  villages  are 


169a  THE   EDICT  OF   NANTES.  363 

version  a  feigned  one,  the  absolution  he  had  received  invalid. 
One  of  their  number  called  upon  his  hearers  to  pray  Almighty 
God  not  to  permit  the  pope,  who  was  always  guided  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  could  not  err  in  the  faith,  to  be  so  persuaded 
by  the  prayers  of  the  Bearnais  as  to  grant  him  his  favor.  As 
for  the  redoutable  Boucher  himself,  who  a  few  months  since 
had  not  scrupled,  at  the  fifth  anniversary  of  the  Parisian  Bar- 
ricades, to  say  that  Henry  was  a  miscreant,  good  for  nothing- 
else  than  to  be  thrown  into  a  tumbrel  and  hung  on  the  gallows, 
he  still  continued  to  preach  the  startling  doctrine  that  it  was 
out  of  the  power  of  the  pope,  nay,  of  God  himself,  to  absolve 
so  desperate  a  sinner  as  Henry  of  Xavarre  ! ' 

Whatever  he  may  have  thought  of  his  own  ability,  Pope  Clem- 
ent showed  no  disposition  to  exercise  in  the  king's  behalf  any  of 
pope  element  tne  resources  that  might  lurk  in  the  apostolic  treasu- 
intractabie.  r|es  0f  grace>  When  the  monarch  sent  the  Duke  of 
Kevers  to  Rome  to  endeavor  to  placate  the  pontiff,  Clement 
stoutly  refused  to  recognize  Henry  the  Fourth,  or  Navarre  (for 
so  he  affected  to  style  him),  as  King  of  France,  or  to 

Mission  of  •  i  -i     i         •  . 

Neversto  receive  the  duke  in  any  capacity  save  as  a  private  in- 
dividual. Even  then  he  treated  him  with  little  cour- 
tesy, while  the  ecclesiastics  who  accompanied  Severs  were  told 
that  they  must  purge  themselves  of  the  fault  of  their  partici- 
pation in  the  recent  events  at  Saint  Denis  in  the  presence  of  the 
Cardinal  of  Santa  Severina,  Grand  Inquisitor  and  Grand  Pen- 
itentiary, before  they  could  be  admitted  to  the  honor  of  kissing 
the  feet  of  his  holiness.  In  the  sequel  this  degrading  condition 
was  observed,  slightly  modified,  indeed,  in  consequence  of  the 
duke's  earnest  remonstrance  against  the  indignity  placed  upon 
him  and  his  suite  by  making  the  French  prelates  appear  to  be 
fit  subjects  for  the  action  of  the  Inquisition  ;  but  the  Cardinal 
of  Aragon,  whom  the  pontiff    proposed  to  substitute  for  the 

within  the  hounds  of  the  present  commune  of  La  Fere,  and  were  occupied 
during  the  siege  by  the  royalists.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  house  occu- 
pied by  the  king  was  on  the  confines  of  the  two  villages  ;  or,  the  historian 
may  accidentally  have  used  the  name  of  one  village  for  that  of  the  other. 
They  are  barely  six  miles  distant  from  each  other. 
1  De  Thou,  viii.  (bk.  107)  311  ;  Lestoile,  ii.  135,  212. 


HCA  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XIV. 

Grand  Inquisitor,  was  notoriously  devoted  to  Spanish  interests 
and  hostile  to  France.  In  the  object  of  his  mission  Nevers 
utterly  failed.  Clement  was  deaf  to  all  argument.  He  was  re- 
solved to  deny  the  king  the  desired  absolution.  Without  wait- 
ing for  the  ambassador  to  broach  the  subject,  he  exclaimed  : 
"  Do  not  tell  me  that  your  king  is  a  Catholic.  I  shall  never 
believe  that  he  is  really  converted  unless  an  angel  come  from 
heaven  to  assure  me  that  he  is.  As  for  the  Catholics  that  have 
followed  his  party,  I  do  not  hold  them  to  be  disobedient  and 
deserters  of  religion  and  of  the  crown;  but  they  are  only  bas- 
tard children  and  sons  of  the  bondwoman.  On  the  contrary, 
those  of  the  League  are  the  true  legitimate  children,  the  true 
mainstays,  and  even  the  true  pillars  of  the  Catholic  religion." 
He  explained  his  resolute  attitude  toward  the  French  king, 
when,  a  little  later,  he  declared  that  Henry  had  not  given  a  sin- 
gle mark  of  Catholicit}7,  except  that  he  used  the  sign  of  the 
Cross ;  he  persevered  in  his  attempts  to  reduce  a  kingdom  to 
which  he  had  forfeited  his  rights,  and  this,  too,  in  spite  of 
the  papal  excommunication  ;  he  had  not  restored  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion  in  Beam  ;  he  still  treated  with  the  Protestant 
princes  of  Germany  and  with  Queen  Elizabeth;  he  even  toler- 
ated Huguenot  preaching  within  his  palace,  for  the  benefit  of 
his  sister.2  In  the  end  the  Duke  of  Nevers  made  his  way  ont 
of  the  pontifical  capital  rather  in  the  fashion  of  an  escaping  ene- 
my than  with  the  formalities  of  an  ambassador  returning  from 
a  mission.  Receiving  the  information,  as  he  was  departing 
through  the  Porta  del  Popolo,  that  Clement  had  instructed 
officers  to  serve  upon  the  ecclesiastics  who  accompanied  him  a 
citation  to  appear  before  the  Inquisition,  upon  pain  of  excom- 
munication in  case  of  disobedience,  the  duke  bade  them  ride  at 


1  "  Ayant  reconneu  vostre  Saintete,  en  toutes  les  trois  audiences  preeedentes, 
fort  resolue  de  n'absoudre  mon  Roy  ;  me  disant  d'elle-mesme,  sans  que  je  luy 
parlasse  de  ce  fait,  qu'elle  ne  vouloit  croire  qu'il  fust  bien  converty.  si  un 
ange  du  ciel  ne  venoit  le  luy  dire  a  l'aureille."  Discours  de  la  legation  de  M. 
le  due  de  Nevers,  in  the  Memoires  de  Nevers.  ii.  463.  I  have  used  in  the  text 
the  more  extended  report  of  Clement's  words  in  the  Discours  de  ce  que  fit 
Monsieur  de  Nevers  a  son  voyage       Rome  en  Tannee  1593,  ibid  ,  ii.  414 

-  De  Thou,  viii   (bk.  108)361. 


1595.  THE  EDICT   OF  NANTES.  305 

his  side ;  meanwhile  giving  out  that  he  would  not  hesitate  to 
kill  on  the  spot  any  person  presumptuous  enough  to  undertake 
the  execution  of  the  pope's  command.  And  so  he  left  Rome.1 
It  was  about  eighteen  months  later  that  negotiations  were 
renewed  with  the  head  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  We 
shall  not  be  uncharitable  if  we  suppose  that  the  marked  suc- 
cesses of  Henry  the  Fourth,  to  which  reference  must  soon  be 
made,  were  the  chief  cause  of  the  entertainment,  on  the  part 
of  Clement,  of  proposals  which  he  had  at  first  rejected. 
D'Ossat,  later  cardinal,  and  Du  Perron,  Bishop  of  Evreux, 
were  now  the  French  agents.     Their  exertions,  if  not 

Efforts  of  °  i-i.i 

D'Ossat  and  more  strenuous  or  more  skilful,  were  attended  with 
better  success  than  those  of  the  duke.  The  pope 
and  the  ultramontane  party  at  first  endeavored  to  exact  the 
hardest  conditions  from  the  king,  as  the  price  of  reconciliation. 
They  talked  of  requiring  Henry  to  repeal  the  tolerant  Edict  of 
1577,  to  exclude  all  Protestants  from  offices  of  trust  and  dig- 
nity, to  proscribe  all  religious  liberty,  so  soon  as  the  present 
war  should  be  at  an  end,  to  restore  to  the  adherents  of  the 
League  all  their  forfeited  honors,  to  renounce  alliance  with  the 
Protestant  Powers,  and  to  do  other  things  alike  repugnant  to 
the  royal  plans  and  impossible  of  execution.  But,  now  that 
success  had  perched  on  the  royal  banners,  it  was  a  matter  of 
comparative  ease  for  the  envoys  to  show  the  absurdity  of  ex- 
pecting such  measures.  They  refused  absolutely  to  take  any 
steps  which  might  appear  to  place  the  crown  of  France  at  the 
disposal  of  the  pope,  or  be  construed  as  a  rehabilitation  of  his 
majesty.  This  much  of  humiliation  Henry  was  spared  through- 
out a  transaction  in  itself  sufficiently  humbling  to  a  monarch 
possessed  of  ordinary  self-respect.  The  envoys  consented  to 
abjure  in  the  king's  name  any  Calvinistic  or  other  heretical  doc- 


1  De  Thou,  viii.  355.  The  "  Discours  de  la  legation  de  M.  le  due  de  Nevers  " 
is  the  most  authentic  account  of  this  embassy,  being  penned  by  the  duke  in  the 
form  of  a  letter  to  Pope  Clement  VIII.  himself,  under  date  of  January  14, 1594. 
It  occupies  pp.  437-489  of  the  second  volume  of  the  Memoires  de  Nevers.  An- 
other and  shorter  account  which  the  duke  gave  to  the  world,  under  the  name 
of  a  third  person,  is  contained  in  the  same  Memoires  (ii.  405-433).  It  gives 
some  details  not  found  in  the  fuller  statement. 


366  THE  HUGUENOTS   AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.      Ch.  XIV. 

trines  which  he  might  once  have  held,  and  to  swear  submission 
to  the  Roman  See.  They  took  the  trouble  to  engage  that  their 
master  would  go  at  least  four  times  a  year  to  the  confessional, 
and  approach  at  least  four  times  a  year  the  holy  communion. 
!Not  only  so,  but,  unless  prevented  by  sufficient  reasons,  he  would 
say  his  chaplet  every  day,  recite  the  litanies  every  "Wednesday, 
and  repeat  the  rosary  of  the  blessed  Virgin  every  Friday.  lie 
would  take  the  Virgin  to  be  his  protectress,  would  observe  all 
the  fasts  of  the  church,  would  hear  mass  daily.  lie  would  re- 
establish Roman  Catholicism  in  his  ancestral  states  of  Beam, 
and  would  bring  up  the  young  Prince  of  Conde,  presumptive 
heir  to  the  throne,  in  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  Indeed, 
the  envoys  were  reluctantly  brought  to  promise  in  Henry'.-  lie- 
half,  that  he  would  publish  and  execute  in  France  the  Decree* 
of  the  Council  of  Trent.  They  took  good  care,  however,  to 
stipulate  that  exception  should  be  made  of  those  articles,  should 
there  be  any  such,  that  could  not  be  carried  into  effect  with- 
out disturbing  the  quiet  of  the  State.1 

These  points  having  been  virtually  agreed  upon,  the  pope 
was  as  well  satisfied  as  circumstances  would  allow  him  to  be. 
The  pope  eat-  However,  he  went  through  the  form  of  consulting 
isfied.  the  "  sacred  college,"  which  took  more  than  a  fort- 

night for  the  expression  of  the  opinions  of  its  members.  More 
than  three-fourths  of  the  cardinals  declared  themselves  in  favor 
of  granting  the  absolution.  Nor  could  the  edifying  spectacle 
of  the  "  supreme  pontiff"  publicly  seeking  divine  illumination 
be  spared.  Twice  did  Clement,  with  a  very  small  company  of 
ecclesiastics,  his  servants,  proceed  at  dawn  of  day  from  the 
Quirinal  palace  to  the  basilica  of  Santa  Maria  Maggiore,  there 
to  engage  in  protracted  supplications  at  the  shrine  of  the  Vir- 
gin. The  pope  walked  barefooted,  as  did  also  his  attendant?. 
He  looked  neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left,  but  fixed  his  eyes 
upon  the  ground.  He  wept  continually,  and  refrained  from 
giving  his  customary  benediction  to  the  passers-by.1 

1  I  refer  the  reader,  curious  in  such  matters,  to  the  summary  of  sixteen 
articles  in  De  Thou,  viii.  (hook  113)  640. 

2  Letter  of  D'Ossat  to  Villeroy,  Rome,  August  30,  1595,  in  Lettres  du  Cardi- 
nal d'Ossat,  i.  165. 


1595.  THE   EDICT   OF   NANTES.  367 

The  pompous  ceremonial  of  the    absolution  took  place  on 

Sunday,  the  seventeenth  of  September,  1595,  upon  the  square 

in  front  of  St.  Peter's.     Here,  in  the  presence  of  an 

Ceremony  of      .  .1  .  x>  1 

the  king's  ab-  immense  concourse  or   people,  the  two  .brenchmen 

solution.  1     1        tt-«  _i»  -n  it  i 

who  represented  the  lvmg  or  r  ranee  knelt  and  swore, 
with  their  hands  resting  upon  the  Holy  Gospels,  that  the  mon- 
arch, their  master,  would  persevere  in  the  Roman,  Catholic  and 
Apostolic  religion,  and  that  he  would  observe  all  the  conditions 
previously  agreed  upon  and  now  publicly  read.  Here,  too,  the 
same  envoys  of  the  Very  Christian  King  kneeled  a  second  time 
before  Clement,  while  the  words  of  the  Fifty-first  Psalm  were 
solemnly  sung  by  the  papal  choir.  As  each  successive  verse 
was  repeated,  the  pope,  with  a  rod  which  he  held  in  his  hand, 
lightly  smote  the  shoulders  of  the  representatives  of  the  most 
prominent  monarchy  of  Europe,  in  token  that  the  Church  eman- 
cipated Henry  of  Navarre  from  the  censures  which  bound  him. 
The  ceremony  might  be  explained  as  a  mere  relic  of  Roman 
law  which  had  passed  over  into  the  usage  of  the  primitive 
Christian  discipline.  Most  men,  however,  listened  with  im- 
patience to  the  strains  of  the  Miserere,  and  murmured  that  the 
pope  had  inflicted  a  disgraceful  stain  upon  the  fair  escutcheon 
of  France — or,  as  the  caustic  Agrippa  d'Aubigne  well  expresses 
himself,  "  que  la  pantoufle  par-la  se  decrottoit  sur  les  fleurs  de 
lis." ' 

Meanwhile,  if  Henry's  abjuration  had  not  instantly  concilia- 
ted the  friendship  and  favor  of  the  occupant  of  the  papal  chair, 

neither  did  it  protect  the  king's  person  from  conspira- 

Conspiracies         ,  ,  *    .  1  p    t-»«  t»         «i 

against  cies  aimed  at  his  hie.      lhe  plot  or  Pierre  Parriere 

Pierre  Bar-'  followed  closely  upon  the  monarch's  change  of  religious 
profession.  Happily,  the  culprit's  imprudence  in 
communicating  his  design  to  several  ecclesiastics  led  to  his 
arrest  before  he  had  a  chance  to  attempt  the  execution.  A 
Carmelite,  a  Capuchin,  and  one  or  two  fanatical  priests  kept 
his  secret,  but  a  Dominican  monk  from  Florence  proved  more 
loyal  to  the  country  where  he  was  domiciled  than  they  had  been 


1  Histoire  universelle,  iii.  431.     See,  in  addition  to  De  Thou,  viii.  635-643, 
the  important  letters  of  D'Ossat,  in  the  work  already  mentioned. 


368     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn  XIV 

to  the  land  of  their  birth.1  The  execution  of  Barriere,  who  was 
broken  upon  the  wheel  before  being  suffered  to  die,  did  not  de- 
ter Jean  Chaste!,  a  lad  of  only  nineteen  years,  but  a  precocious 
pupil  in  a  college  of  the  Jesuits,  from  renewing  the  attempt  be- 
fore eighteen  months  had  passed.      This   time   the 

Jean  Chastel.  ,   .  .  r  tt  i  • 

machinations  or  Henry  s  enemies  were  more  nearly 
successful.  The  puny  boy — for  such  he  was  in  stature — insinu- 
ated himself  into  the  royal  apartments,  where  the  monarch,  who 
had  just  returned  from  Picardy,  and  was  still  booted,  was  receiv- 
ing the  greetings  of  his  nobles.  The  king  was  leaning  forward 
courteously  to  raise  Hagny  and  Montigny  from  their  knees, 
when  Chastel,  who  had  approached  unperceived,  struck  at  him 
with  a  knife.  The  blow  was  aimed  at  Henry's  throat,  but  only 
cut  his  upper  lip  and  loosened  one  of  his  teeth.  There  was  no 
possibility  of  mistaking  the  school  where  Chastel  had  learned 
his  lesson  all  too  well.  He  admitted  that  he  had  studied  three 
years  with  the  Jesuits,  and  on  his  person  were  tokens  of  his 
motive  and  of  his  design.  He  wore  a  shirt  which  had  hung  at  the 
famous  shrine  of  the  Virgin  "paritura"  at  Chartres,  with  the 
words  "  Henrico  quarto  "  inscribed  thereon.  He  was  provided 
with  some  strings  of  beads  blessed  by  priestly  hands,  with  an 
"agnus  Dei,"  and  with  scraps  of  paper  on  which  the  significant 
prayer  was  written  :  "  Lord,  vouchsafe  me  strength  to  execute 
(my  purpose)  against  Henry  of  Bourbon  !  "  ' 

In  Barriere's  attempt  the  inspiration  of  the  crime  by  the 

1  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  766,  767  ;  Lestoile,  ii.  174  ;  De  Thou.  viii. 
(bk.  107)  321-324;  "  Brief  discours  du  proces  criminel  faict  a  Pierre  Bairi&re, 
diet  la  Barre,  natif  d'Orleans,  accuse  de  l'horrible  et  execrable  parricide  par 
lui  entrepris  et  attente  contre  la  persoiiue  du  Roi,"  reprinted  in  Memoires  de  la 
Ligue,  v.  450-457,  and  in  Cimber  et  Danjou,  Archives  curieuses,  xiii.  302-370. 

'2  Henry  IV.  toDuplessis  Mornay,  December  27,  1594,  in  Memoires  de  Duples- 
sis  Mornay,  vi.  128, 129  (a  circular  letter,  of  which  a  copy  was  addressed  to  the 
municipality  of  Lyons,  etc.);  Lomenietothe  same,  December  28,  1594,  ibid.,  vi. 
130,  131 ;  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  vi.  249,  etc. ;  De  Thou,  viii.  (bk.  iii.  |  532,  etc.; 
Recueil,  781,  782  ;  Lestoile,  ii.  252.  The  most  copious  source  of  information 
on  the  subject  of  Jean  Chastel,  his  crime,  his  trial,  and  his  punishment  is,  how- 
ever, the  sixth  or  supplementary  volume  of  the  Memoires  de  Conde  (London, 
1743),  which  devotes  nearly  two  hundred  pages  to  documents  bearing  upon 
the  subject.  The  most  remarkable  of  these  is,  undoubtedly,  the  audacious  de- 
fence of  the  assassin  published  in  1595,  under  the  title  of  "Apologie  pour  Je- 


1594.  THE  EDICT   OF   NANTES.  369 

Society  of  Jesus  had  been  suspected ;  in  the  attempt  of  Chastel 
the  hand  of  that  society  and  of  the  King  of  Spain,  whose  ready 
tool  the  organization  had  long  been,  was  all  but  caught  in  the 
Expulsion  of  act-  ^°  wonder  that  the  execution  of  Chastel  was 
the  Jesuits,  accompanied  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits — "  the 
Society  of  Judas"  the  people  nicknamed  them ' — and  closely 
followed  by  a  declaration  of  wrar  on  the  part  of  the  king  against 
the  gray-headed  monarch  of  Spain,  Philip  the  Second,  now  tot- 
tering on  the  verge  of  the  grave,  to  whom  the  employment  of 
the  assassin's  dagger  to  accomplish  his  ends  had  long  been  con- 
genial occupation.2 

Despite  papal  opposition  and  Spanish  or  Jesuit  daggers,  how- 
ever, Henry  had  been  making  steady  progress  in  his  struggle  to 
Henrys  sue-  attain  universal  recognition.  In  January,  1594,  the 
cesses.  city  of   Meaux  made  its  submission.      In  February, 

Lyons  copied  the  example  of  Meaux ;  then  followed  Peronne, 
Mondidier,  Roye,  and  Orleans.  On  the  twenty-seventh  day  of 
the  same  month  the  impressible  people  beheld  the  spectacle  of 
the  solemn  anointing  of  Henry.  Rheims  being  in  the  hands  of 
He  is  anointed  tne  enemv>  Chartres  was  chosen  to  be  the  scene  of  the 
ntchartreB.  great  pageant.  The  sacred  "  ampoule,"  wherein  the 
holy  oil  had  been  carefully  kept  in  store  for  such  occasions 
in  the  cathedral  of  Rheims,  was,  of  course,  quite  out  of  reach ; 
but  fortunately  there  was  discovered  an  escape  from  what  might 
have  proved  an  insuperable  difficulty.  It  was  ascertained  that 
a  vial,  whose  contents  possessed  equal  virtue  for  the  con- 
secration of  kings,  was  to  be  found  in  the  abbey  of  Marmou- 
tier.     Like  the  more  famous  "  ampoule  "  of  Rheims,  this  vessel 


han  Chastel,  Parisien,  execute  a  mort,  et  pour  les  Peres  et  Escolliers  de  la  So- 
ciete  de  Jesus,  bannis  du  Royaume  de  France."  The  real  author  of  the  trea- 
tise was,  it  is  said,  Jean  Boucher,  the  same  furious  preacher  who  had  from  his 
pulpit  for  years  denounced  in  unmeasured  terms  Henry  III.  and  his  successor, 
and  who  wrote  a  famous  book  on  the  "  feigned  conversion  "  of  the  latter. 

1  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  vi.  275. 

2  Henry  IV.  's  declaration  of  war  is  dated  January  17,  1595,  just  three  weeks 
after  Chastel's  attempt.  It  is  published  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  vi.  297-300. 
The  document  refers  particularly  to  the  miraculous  deliverance  of  the  king 
from  "  le  coup  effroyable,  tire  de  la  main  dun  Francois  .  .  .  mais  pousse 
<Tun  esprit  tres-inhumain  et  vrayement  Espagnol." 

Vol.  II.— 24 


370      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE    Ctt  XIV. 

with  its  precious  contents  was  reported  to  have  been  miraculous- 
ly sent  from  heaven  for  the  express  purpose  of  being  used  in  the 
ceremonial  of  the  coronation  of  kings.  Besides,  the  ampoule 
of  Marmoutier  had  this  in  its  favor,  that  the  custodians  asserted 
it  had  been  the  means  of  operating  a  wonderful  cure  in  the  case 
of  St.  Martin  of  Tours  himself.1  Moreover,  said  the  ecclesias- 
tics, it  had  been  almost  miraculously  preserved  from  the  fury  of 
the  Huguenots  in  the  year  1562,  when  most  of  the  sacred  relics 
of  Chartres  had  been  consigned  to  the  flames  and  the  rich  rel- 
iquaries had  been  melted  up.2  Still  easier  was  it  to  find  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  Archbishop  of  Rheims,  the  traditional  celebrant. 
The  worthy  Nicholas  de  Thou,  Bishop  of  Chartres,  figured  in 
his  place,  but  care  was  taken  throughout  the  official  account  of 
the  ceremonial  to  designate  him,  not  by  his  own  proper  name,  but 
by  that  of  the  prelate  whose  functions  he  was  discharging.3 

The  minor  advantages  gained  by  the  king  were  followed  by 

the  recovery  of  his  capital.     On  the  twenty-second  of  March, 

1594,  Henry  made  his  entry  into  Paris,  to  the  great  satisfaction 

of  all  good  and  patriotic  citizens,  to  the  deep  mortifi- 

Pan6  March    cation  of  the  League  and  of  Philip  the  Second,  who 

22    1594 

could  no  longer  gratify  his  self-complacence  by  call- 
ing it,  as  he  had  lately  done,  "  his  good  city."  Though  the  time 
had  evidently  come  for  the  submission  of  the  rebellious  capital, 
it  was  money,  after  all,  that  had  decided  the  governor.  M.  de 
Brissac,  to  open  the  gates  ;  and  Henry  had  good  reason  to  cor- 
rect a  speaker  who  referred  to  the  surrender  of  Paris  as  a  ren- 
dering to  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  even  as  one  most 
render  to  God  the  things  that  are  God's.  "Ventre  Baint-gris," 
said  the  monarch,  using  his  ordinary  exclamation  and  playing 

1  See  the  contemporary  pamphlet  "L'ordre  des  cvr  monies  du  Sacre  el 
Couronnement  du  tres  chrestien  rov  de  France  et  de  Navarre.  Henry  TV 
printed  in  Cimber  et  Danjou,  Archives  curieuses,  xiii.  399-431 ),  which  de- 
scribes the  vase  as  "la  sainte  ampoulle,  precieusementgardee  en  Fabbaye  de 
Marmoustier,  lez  la  ville  de  Tours,  depuis  laguerison  que  miraculeusement  elk 
apporta  a  saint  Martin."  The  "  ampoule  "  is  mentioned  in  the  curious  itinerary 
of  Jodocus  Sincerus,  x.  97. 

9  Cayet,  Chronologie  novenaire,  554. 

3  L'ordre  des  ceremonies  du  Sacre,  ubi  supra,  xiii.  405.       See  De  Thou,  viil 
376,  etc.;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  333. 


1594.  THE   EDICT   OF  NANTES.  371 

upon  the  similarity  of  the  words  in  French,  "  I  have  not  been 
treated  like  Caesar ;  it  has  not  been  rendered,  it  has  been  vended 
to  me!"1  And  now  were  the  acts  of  the  League  one  by  one 
undone,  so  far  as  resolutions  on  paper,  and  solemn  declarations, 
and  pompous  ceremonies  and  Te  Dennis  over  the  king's  triumphs 
could  undo  them.  A  parliament,  most  of  whose  members  had 
lately  been  the  determined  enemies  of  the  prince  whom  they 
recognized  only  as  King  of  Navarre,  re-enforced  by  the  judges 
who  had  been  sitting  at  Tours,  passed  the  most  loyal  of  deci- 
sions. The  Parisian  counsellors,  who  had  made  haste  to  order  a 
sacred  procession  to  be  made  annually  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  and  had  assiduously  com- 
memorated the  Day  of  the  Barricades  by  another  yearly  pil- 
grimage to  the  shrines  of  the  city,  now  exhibited  equal  eager- 
ness in  putting  an  end  to  "all  processions  and  solemnities 
ordered  during,  or  on  occasion  of,  the  late  troubles,"  and  in  es- 
tablishing in  perpetuity  a  new  procession  in  honor  of  the  hap- 
py reduction  of  Paris  to  the  king's  obedience,  wherein  all  the 
members  of  parliament  were  to  take  part  attired  in  red  gowns.2 
The  university  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  the  parliamentary 
judges.  The  doctors  who  for  years  had  been  denouncing  Henry 
as  an  apostate  from  the  faith,  with  no  claims  to  the  throne 
which  he  had  not  forfeited  by  his  persistent  heresy,  and  who 
had  entertained  doubts  whether  the  pope  himself  could  absolve 
him  of  his  guilt,  were  now  quite  clear  in  the  belief  that  obedi- 
ence to  constituted  authority  is  the  duty  of  every  Christian, 
took  an  oath  not  only  to  submit  to  him  with  all  loyal  devotion, 
but  to  spare  neither  their  blood  nor  their  prayers  in  his  behalf, 
and  declared  that  any  of  their  number  who  might  refuse  to  fol- 
low their  example  were  rebels,  guilty  of  treason,  public  enemies, 
and  disturbers  of  the  peace.3 

The  example  of  Paris  was  copied,  within  a  few  months,  by 
B-ouen  and  Havre,  by  Troyes  and  Sens  and  Riom,  by  Agen 

1  "On  ne  me  la  rendu  a  moy  :  on  me  l'a  bien  vendu."     Lestoile,  ii.  218. 

2  "Arrest  de  la  cour  de  parlement  de  Paris,  du  trentiesme  jour   de  Mars, 
1594."     Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  vi.  95-97. 

■'  See  "  Acte  public  et  instrument  de  1'obeissance  rendue,  jureeet  signee  au 
roy  tres  chrestien  Henry  IV,  par  M.  les  recteurs,  docteurs  et  supposts  de  l'u- 


372      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   On.  XIV. 

and  Villeneuve  and  Poitiers.     The  Duke  of  Elbeuf,  also,  made 
his  submission,  and  secured   the   retention  of    the   governor- 
ship   of    Poitiers ;   while  the    Duke  of    Guise,  who 

Submission  .    *  , 

of  cities  and  yielded  later  in  the  year,  managed  to  extort  from 
the  king  such  extravagant  concessions  that  the  very 
courtiers,  a  greedy  set,  blamed  the  royal  complaisance,  and 
Chancellor  Chiverny  not  only  remonstrated,  but  obtained  from 
Henry  an  official  statement  of  the  objections  which  he  inter- 
posed.1 The  scene  was  repeated  with  still  greater  intensity 
when,  by  the  Edict  of  Folembray,  the  very  chief  of  the  culprits 
of  the  League,  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  secured  even  greater  ad- 
vantages than  had  fallen  to  the  lot  of  his  nephew.  The  cour- 
ageous Diana  of  Montmorency  made  strenuous  opposition  to  the 
edict  in  his  favor,  protesting  against  it  in  the  name  of  Queen 
Louise,  widow  of  Henry  the  Third,  because  the  edict  cleared 
the  duke  of  all  responsibility  for  the  murder  of  her  late  hus- 
band ;  and  the  Parliament  of  Paris  attempted  again  and  again 
to  insert  some  saving  clauses,  but  was  in  the  end  compelled  to 
enter  the  obnoxious  paper  upon  its  records  without  modification.' 
Under  Henry  the  Fourth,  in  his  determined  effort  to  become 
undisputed  master  of  France,  nothing  prospered  more  than  an 
enmity  which  held  out  persistently  against  his  invitations  and 
his  arms.  Only  unflinching  loyalty  was  little  esteemed  and  re- 
mained unrewarded. 

In  all  the  numerous  edicts  published  by  Henry  for  the  re- 
TheHugue-  duction  of  the  rebellious  cities  of  his  kingdom,  there 
fr°omemanyed  was,  so  far  as  the  Huguenots  were  concerned,  a  dreary 
places.  uniformity.     However  they  might  differ  in  other  re- 

spects, they  agreed  in  one  thing  :  the  worship  of  the  Protestants 
was  formally  excluded  from  the  municipal  limits,  and  even  from 

niversite  de  Paris,"  dated  April  22,  1594,  with  the  form  of  the  oath,  etc., 
in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  vi.  98,  etc.  It  should  be  noted  that  Boucher, 
Guarinus,  Feuardent,  and  a  few  others  of  the  most  prominent  Leaguers  did 
not  sign,  and  consulted  their  safety  by  flight.  On  the  surrender  of  Paris,  De 
Thou,  viii.  382-392,  the  Recueil  des  choses  memorables,  774-776,  Pasquier, 
CEuvres  choisies,  ii.  345,  etc. ,  may  be  consulted. 

1  See  De  Thou,  viii.  399-401,  510-512  ;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  338,  etc. 

2  De  Thou,  viii.  737-742  ;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  374,  375  ;  Memoires  de  la 
Ligue,  vi.  376-390. 


1598—1598.  THE  EDICT   OF  NANTES.  373 

the  suburbs.  Nor  was  the  enactment  which  discriminated  in 
so  humiliating  a  manner  against  the  exercises  of  their  faith 
consigned  to  an  inconspicuous  place  in  the  statute,  where  its 
presence  might  be  less  glaringly  offensive.  Everywhere  it  oc- 
cupied the  most  prominent  position,  so  as  not  to  be  overlooked 
even  by  the  most  careless  reader.  The  very  first  of  the  articles 
of  capitulation  granted  to  Vitry,  Governor  of  Meaux,  when  he 
made  his  submission,  was  a  promise  of  his  majesty  that  he 
would  maintain  all  the  inhabitants  in  the  Poman,  Catholic,  and 
Apostolic  religion,  without  allowing  the  exercise  of  any  other 
worship.1  This  was  on  the  fourth  of  January,  1594.  The  next 
month  Orleans  and  Bourges  opened  their  gates  to  Henry,  and 
in  the  initial  article  of  the  edicts  registered  in  the  Parliament 
at  Tours  in  favor  of  each  of  the  cities  was  a  solemn  provision 
that,  in  the  entire  bailiwick  and  in  all  the  towns  within  the  juris- 
diction of  the  "  presidial  "  court,  there  should  henceforth  be  no 
other  worship  than  that  of  the  Roman,  Catholic,  and  Apostolic 
religion,  save  in  the  places  and  in  the  manner  permitted  by  the 
Edict  of  Pacification  of  1577,  and  by  the  declarations  and  articles 
since  published  for  its  execution.2  In  the  edict  by  which  the 
monarch  magnanimously3  took  his  rebellious  capital  back  into 
his  good  favor,  in  the  month  of  March  following,  he  began  by 
re-enacting  the  exclusion  of  all  other  religious  exercises  than 
those  of  the  Pomish  Church  from  the  city  and  suburbs  of  Paris, 
and  its  neighborhood  to  the  distance  of  ten  leagues.4  April 
witnessed  similar  royal  edicts,  containing  similar  provisions 
unfriendly  to   Protestantism,  in  favor  of  Pouen,  Havre  and 

1  "Sans  qu'il  y  soit  faict  autre  exercice  de  religion."  Articles  accordez  par 
le  Roy  aux  habitants  de  la  ville  de  Meaux,  in  Recueil  des  Edicts  et  Articles  ac- 
cordez par  le  Roy  Henry  IV  pour  la  reunion  de  ses  subjets.  Imprime  l'An 
de  Grace  1604.     Fol.  4. 

2  Ibid.,  fols.  9,  14. 

3  "  Recognoissant  qu'il  n'y  a  rien  qui  nous  donne  plus  de  tesmoignage  que 
nous  sommes  f  aits  a  la  ressemblance  de  Dieu,  que  la  clemence  et  debonnairete, 
oubliant  d'un  franc  courage  les  offenses  et  fautes  passees,  avons  declare,1'  etc. 
Ibid.,  fols.  22,  23. 

4  Ibid. ,  ubi  supra.  Duplessis  Mornay,  while  rejoicing  over  the  capture  of 
Paris,  may  be  pardoned  for  having  entertained  the  fear  that  it  might  here  fare 
with  Henry  as  with  the  Englishman  who,  at  the  battle  of  Poitiers,  is  said  to 
have  caught  a  Frenchman  who  carried  Mm  off.     Memoires,  vi.  47. 


374     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XIV. 

Verneuil  in  Normandy,  of  Troyes  in  Champagne,  and  of  S 
In  May  the  Roman  Catholics  were  assured  by  a  solemn  compact 
that  there  should  be  no  Huguenot  preche  in  Lyons ;  in  July, 
not  only  that  there  should  be  none  in  Poitiers,  but  that  the 
services  of  the  mass  should  be  re-established  in  Niort,  Fontenay, 
La  Rochelle,  and  all  other  places  of  the  district  of  Poitou  where 
it  had  been  intermitted.  So  fared  it  likewise  with  Chateau- 
Thierry,  Laon,  Amiens,  and  Beauvais,  in  the  north  ;  with  Agen, 
Villeneuve,  and  Marmande,  in  the  south  ;  with  St.  Malo,  in  the 
west.  When  the  Duke  of  Guise  made  his  peace,  in  the  last 
month  of  the  year,  his  reconciliation  brought  with  it  the  inter- 
diction of  the  Reformed  rites  at  Rheims,  Rocroy,  St.  Dizier. 
Guise,  Joinville,  Fismes,  and  Montcornet ;  just  as  when  the 
Sieur  de  Bois-Dauphin,  in  the  following  year,  saw  fit  to  come 
to  terms  with  his  liege,  he  secured  a  similar  proscription  of 
Protestantism  from  Mans  and  all  the  other  places  which  he 
brought  with  him  to  the  king's  service.  Mayenne's  submission 
was  conditioned  upon  the  concession  of  the  cities  of  Chalons, 
Seurre,  and  Soissons  to  him  as  places  of  security,  for  the  space 
of  six  years;  and,  for  that  term,  neither  was  Protestant  worship 
to  be  held  there,  nor  was  any  Protestant  to  be  appointed  to  an 
office  of  trust  or  emolument.  So  it  was  that  Protestant  worship 
was,  a  little  later,  expelled  from  a  distance  of  four  leagues  about 
Toulouse;  and,  shortly  before  the  promulgation  of  the  great 
edict  of  which  I  am  shortly  to  speak,  from  Rochefort  on  the 
Loire,  from  Craon,  and,  in  the  compact  with  the  Duke  of  Mer- 
cosur, the  last  of  the  Leaguers  to  hold  out,  from  the  city  of 
Nantes  itself  and  for  a  distance  of  three  leagues  all  around — 
this  last  by  a  "perpetual  and  irrevocable"  edict.1 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  provisions  for  the  sole  occupancy 
of  all  the  great  points  of  influence  in  the  kingdom 

No  provisions  »  r 

favorabieto     ^y   flie  Roman    Catholic    Church,  there   was    not  a 

them.  <J 

sentence  in  behalf  of  the  king's  former  associates, 
those  who  continued  to  profess  the  religious  faith  he  had  once 
held,  the  men  whose  valor  and  self-sacrifice  had  triumphantly 

1  All  these  edicts  are  contained  in  the  "  Recueil  des  Edicts  et  Articles  ac 
cordez  par  le  Roy  Henry  IV  pour  la  reunion  de  ses  subjets,'  fols.  1-136. 


1593.  THE   EDICT   OF  NANTES.  375 

carried  him,  through  many  a  bloody  conflict,  to  the  throne. 
Each  new  proclamation  contained  a  reiteration  of  his  majesty's 
purpose  to  maintain  the  Romish  priests,  in  their  persons,  in 
their  ecclesiastical  functions,  in  their  revenues.  There  was 
not  a  syllable  about  any  possible  rights  to  which  the  Protestant 
minister  of  the  Gospel  might  himself  be  imagined  to  be  en- 
titled, not  a  syllable  asserting  that  the  Protestant  laity  merited 
some  scanty  return  of  gratitude  for  their  unswerving  loyalty. 
Instead  of  this,  in  each  successive  edict  made  to  secure  the  ad- 
hesion of  mercenary  traitors,  wearied  of  their  rebellion,  and 
anxious  to  drive  the  best  possible  bargain  with  the  king,  the 
Huguenots  saw  themselves  excluded  from  one  or  more  new 
cities.  It  became  evident  at  length  that,  if  the  process  were 
continued  much  longer,  Protestantism  would  presently  find  no 
place  for  the  sole  of  its  foot  between  the  British  Channel  and 
the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

It  is  time  that  we  should  return  to  the  Huguenots,  grieved 

but  not  dismayed  at  the  king's  defection.     Certainly  they  were 

not  so  much  surprised  as  they  might  have  been,  had 

The  Hugue-  .  - 

notsnotdis-  Henry's  attitude  from  the  moment  of  his  accession 
been  a  more  generous  one.  With  his  first  public 
declaration  at  St.  Cloud,  the  late  chief  of  the  Huguenots  clearly 
assumed  a  neutral  position  as  between  Roman  Catholicism  and 
Protestantism.  Yet  this  was  the  moment  which  a  man  of  deep 
religious  sympathies — or,  indeed,  even  a  man  of  shallow  con- 
victions, but  loyally  grateful  to  the  companions  associated  with 
him  for  long  years — would  have  chosen  to  identify  himself 
more  completely  than  ever  before  with  the  adherents  of  the 
same  faith.  Henry's  course  as  king  was  from  the  beginning  an 
acknowledgment  of  his  selfishness — an  admission  that  he  had 
now  come  to  regard  the  religion  which  he  had  hitherto  pro- 
fessed only  as  the  scaffolding  by  which  he  had  climbed  to  his 
present  elevation,  but  for  which  he  had  little  concern,  regarding 
the  perpetuity  of  the  structure  as  essential  neither  to  his  happi- 
ness nor  to  his  security.  A  Gaspard  de  Coligny  would  have 
shrunk  from  putting  such  an  indignity  upon  his  creed  or  upon 
his  fellow-believers. 

The  outlook  was  certainly   discouraging.      The  Huguenots 


376      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIV. 

knew  the  king  too  well  to  believe  that  he  was  of  himself  disposed 
to  persecute  his  old  associates  in  arms.  And  yet  who  could  say 
Possibility  of  whither  the  course  of  blind  submission  upon  which  he 
persecution,  ^ad  started  would  lead  \  Had  he  not  already  gone 
far  beyond  his  own  expectations  ?  He  had  been  urged  to  en- 
ter the  Roman  Catholic  Church  with  the  purpose  of  purify  - 
it  of  its  admitted  abuses  ;  and  he  had  from  the  very  first 
been  compelled  to  sanction  by  his  example  the  most  flagrant  of 
those  abuses.  Most  remarkable  of  all,  those  very  counsellors 
who  were  commonly  supposed  to  deny  the  existence  of  a  God 
were  the  persons  who  insisted  most  upon  Henry's  swearing  that 
he  had  implicit  belief  in  images  and  relics,  in  purga- 

Duplessis  .  L  D  I        © 

Momay'sex-    tory  and  indulgences.     Duplessis  Mornav  graphically 

postulation.  J  &.  L  ./    to       I  J 

described  the  king's  unhappy  plight  m  a  letter  of  ex- 
postulation addressed  to  the  monarch  himself.  "'Sire,'  you 
were  told,  i give  your  people  the  satisfaction  they  desire:  you 
may  afterward  believe  what  you  will.  Hear  as  little  of  the 
mass  as  you  please,  provided  you  are  seen  to  be  present  at  its 
celebration.'  Where,  on  the  contrary,  is  the  rigor  that  has  Dot 
been  observed  ?  Have  you  not  been  called  upon  to  swear  con- 
trary to  your  conscience,  and  to  abjure  your  creed  in  the  most 
precise,  the  least  justifiable,  terms — a  thing  which  they  would 
not  have  required  of  a  Turk  or  a  Jew?  These  gentlemen,  in 
short,  have  taken  pleasure  in  triumphing  over  your  faith — a 
faith  heretofore  triumphant  over  so  many  temptations,  over  so 
many  assaults.  You  were  assured  that  your  abjuration  was  the 
veritable  method  of  destroying  the  papal  authority  in  France ; 
and  you  have  been  made  to  swear  to  maintain  that  authority  ! 
Nor  is  this  all.  You  will  be  called  on  to  do  penance  for  hav- 
ing been  a  Huguenot,  and  the  pope  will  impose  that  penance 
upon  you  in  the  form  of  a  war  to  be  waged  against  i  heretics ' 
— in  other  words,  upon  the  best  Christians,  the  most  loyal  of 
Frenchmen,  the  most  sincere  among  your  subjects.  At  first 
the  proposition  will  shock  your  native  kindliness.  You  will 
exclaim,  'How  shall  I  wage  war  against  my  servants  whose 
blood  I  drank  in  my  necessity  !'  Nevertheless  you  will  have  to 
come  to  it.  You  will  be  entrapped  into  undertaking  hostilities 
merely  for  a  few  months.     4  Prove  to  us  that  yours  is  not  a 


1593.  THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  377 

simulated  conversion,'  will  be  the  cry  of  the  League.  The 
Koman  pontiff  will  add  his  authority  and  exact  the  price  of  his 
absolution.  Meanwhile  He  who  of  yore  defended  you  will  arm 
Himself  against  you,  and  against  such  an  adversary  there  is 
neither  counsel  nor  might." 

"  Sire,"  said  the  Protestant  champion,  in  conclusion,  "do  you 
indeed  wish  to  remove  from  the  Huguenots  the  desire  to  have 
a  Protector  ?  Then  take  away  the  need  of  one.  Be  yourself 
their  protector.  Continue  to  them  that  former  care,  that  for- 
mer affection.  Anticipate  their  supplications  by  your  free  ac- 
tion, their  just  demands  by  a  voluntary  gift  of  such  things  as 
are  necessary.  When  they  shall  recognize  the  fact  that  you 
have  a  care  for  them,  they  will  cease  to  have  it  for  themselves. 
But  pardon  him  who  tells  you  that  they  doubt  whether  you  have 
enough  care  of  yourself.  You  know  what  injures,  what  pleases 
them.  Present  to  yourself  the  petitions  which  you  used  to  pre- 
sent to  the  kings,  your  predecessors,  for  the  liberty,  the  security, 
the  dignity  of  the  Huguenots.  Those  petitions  have  certainly 
not  since  then  abated  aught  of  their  equity ;  nay,  the  Protes- 
tants have  added  thereto  by  subsequent  good  services,  and  they 
must  have  gained  by  your  accession  to  power.  For  you  may 
both  now  set  forth  and  grant  their  just  complaints ;  you  may 
be,  without  other  deputies,  and  with  more  good-will,  the  judge, 
if  you  choose,  and  the  advocate,  and  the  grantor,  all  together."  x 

It  is  not  improbable  that,  as  the  biographer  of  Duplessis 
Mornay  asserts,  the  frank  and  noble  appeal  marvellously  touched 
the  king,  who  perceived  both  its  reasonableness  and  its  truth. 
At  any  rate,  Henry  was  more  than  ever  urgent  that  his  old 
Huguenot  adviser  should  come  promptly  to  court.  And  when, 
in  September,  1593,  Duplessis  Mornay  at  last  arrived  at  Char- 
tres,  where  the  court  was  temporarily  staying,  his  majesty  re- 
ceived him  with  marked  favor.  At  once  he  took  him  apart, 
and  assured  him  that  he  had  been  constrained  by  the  necessi- 

1 1  have  quoted,  partly  only  in  substance,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  letters 
ever  addressed  by  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Henry  IV.  It  may  be  read  entire  both 
in  the  Memoires  of  that  nobleman,  v.  535-544,  and  in  his  life,  published  in 
Leyden  in  1647,  pp.  201-207.  It  is  not  dated,  but  must  have  been  written 
in  August  or  in  the  early  part  of  September,  1593. 


378      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XI V. 

ties  of  his  situation  to  sacrifice  himself  for  his  subjects,  that 
he  aimed  in  particular  to  be  able  more  easily  to  give  rest  to  the 

Protestants.     He  told  him  that  he  saw  plainly  from 
to  justify  his    his  letter  that  Duplessis  Mornay  supposed  him   to 

have  made  an  abjuration  which  he  had  not  made, 
and  he  proceeded  to  narrate  the  events  of  Saint  Denis  after  his 
own  fashion.  "  Yes,"  said  the  Huguenot,  "  but  I  know  that 
your  abjuration  has  been  sent  to  the  pope."  The  king  did  not 
deny  the  fact — it  was  useless  to  do  so,  as  he  found  that  Du- 
plessis Mornay  was  well  informed  of  the  truth — but  he  had  an 
answer  ready.  "I  did  not  write  nor  sign  the  abjuration  in 
question.  It  was  written  and  signed  by  M.  de  Lomenie,  my 
secretary,  who  ordinarily  imitates  my  handwriting."  "  Sire," 
replied  the  fearless  Protestant,  "  the  document  was  presented 
to  the  pope  with  your  consent,  by  your  command,  as  your  own. 
You  wish  it  to  be  believed  such,  otherwise  the  paper  is  useless. 
Let  your  conscience  flatter  itself  with  this  subtle  device,  but, 
sire,  do  you  think  that  God  can  be  deceived  by  such  sophis- 
tries ? "  Henry  had  much  to  say  with  regard  to  his  hopes  of 
reforming  the  church  by  means  of  national  and  universal  coun- 
cils, or  of  some  good  pope  whose  election  he  thought  he  had 
fair  reason  to  look  for.  But  Duplessis  Mornay  met  him  at 
every  point,  and  showed  him  the  futility  of  his  expectations. 
A  good  pope,  he  maintained,  was  a  contradiction  in  terms. 
Pontiffs  who,  like  Pius  the  Second,  made  great  professions  of 
reformatory  projects  became,  upon  their  accession,  the  worst 
advocates  of  corrupt  measures.  Cardinal  du  Bellav  expn 
the  truth  when  justifying  his  conduct  in  refusing  to  be  exalted  to 
the  Roman  See.  "  God  forbid,"  he  said,  "  that  I  should  become 
the  son  of  perdition !  There  is,  my  friend,  such  a  pestilence 
attaching  to  that  chair,  that  no  sooner  is  a  man  seated  thereon 
than  he  is  infected  by  it,  even  though  he  belonged  to  the  class 
of  those  who  previously  seemed  the  most  excellent  men  in  the 
world.  It  is  a  chair  of  pestilence— cathedra  pestilentice — from 
which  may  God  save  me ! " ' 

The  wisest  among  the  Huguenots  had  been  as  unwilling  that 

1  Vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  207. 


1593.  THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  370 

the  deputies  of  the  churches  should  be  present  at  the  pretended 
"  Instruction  "  of  Henry  as  they  were  anxious  that  those  depu- 
ties should  accept  his  majesty's  invitation  to  come 

Huguenot  .   i      i   •  i  .1 

deputies  at  and  discuss  with  mm— and,  possibly,  with  represent- 
atives of  the  other  faith — the  terms  upon  which  the 
adherents  of  both  religions  might  live  peaceably  together  in 
France.  To  consent  to  witness  the  "  Instruction  "  would  have 
been  to  condemn  themselves  in  advance  to  become  absurd  spec- 
tators of  the  preparations  made  for  a  triumph  over  the  truth 
and  its  professors.  In  acceding  to  the  proposed  conference, 
however,  they  were  following  the  instinct  of  self-preservation. 
Among  the  Protestant  leaders  the  Duke  of  Bouillon  was  almost 
the  only  person  who  deemed  it  imprudent  for  the  delegates  of 
the  church  to  go  to  Mantes.  It  was  October  when  these  repre- 
sentatives, numbering  about  sixty  persons,  reached  the  spot, 
but  several  weeks  elapsed  before  his  majesty,  purposely  detained 
by  his  Roman  Catholic  counsellors,  we  are  told,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Dieppe  and  Fecamp,  arrived.  Nor  was  it  until  the 
Protestants  had  sent  to  remonstrate  with  him,  and  to  remind 
him  that  it  was  solely  in  obedience  to  his  command  that  they 
had  come  from  so  great  distances  and  in  such  numbers,  that 
Henry  returned  to  the  banks  of  the  Seine.1  Meanwhile  the 
deputies  had  improved  their  enforced  delay  by  putting  in 
shape  the  documents  containing  their  demands  and  their  com- 
plaints— the  latter  forming,  unfortunately,  a  large  and  formida- 
ble budget.  These  papers  they  placed  in  Henry's  hands  when, 
on  the  twelfth  of  December,  he  admitted  them  to  an  audi- 
ence in  his  private  cabinet.  Their  spokesman,  M.  Feydeau, 
lately  member  of  the  Parliament  of  Bordeaux,  delivered  an 
address  not  less  remarkable  for  the  care  of  its  composition 
than  for  the  mingled  frankness  and  boldness  of  its  thought  or 
the  dignity  of  the  delivery. a  The  king's  reply  was  gracious 
and  conciliatory ;  for  he  declared  one  of  his  objects  in  calling 
them  together  to  be  to  prove  that  his  "  conversion  "  had  in  no- 
wise diminished  his  affection  for  them,  and  another,  that,  since 


JIbid.,  209.     Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste,  etc.,  i.  263. 
'Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste,  etc.,  ubi  supra. 


380       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cn.  XIV. 

his  rebellious  subjects  showed  signs  of  an  inclination  to  peace, 
pacification  might  not  be  concluded  without  the  intervention  of 
the  Huguenots.1 

But  it  soon  appeared  that  his  majesty  was  more  lavish  of 
words  than  of  deeds.  For  a  time  it  looked  as  though  the  depu- 
ties would  be  dismissed  with  vague  assurances  that  justice  would 
be  done  them  in  the  course  of  three  months,  the  king  being 
unsatisfactory  unable  to  attend  to  the  matter  at  present  because 
negotiations.  o£  ^jg  pressing  engagements.  The  absurdity  of  this 
policy,  however,  was  soon  demonstrated.  If  the  king  was  wait- 
ing to  hear  from  Home  of  the  success  of  the  negotiation  of  the 
Duke  of  Nevers,  it  was  idle  to  expect  that  the  fit  time  for  sat- 
isfying the  just  demands  of  the  Huguenots  would  ever  come. 
If  Nevers  should  fail,  it  would  never  do  to  add  to  the  difficulties 
already  standing  in  the  way  of  obtaining  the  papal  absolution. 
If  Nevers  should  succeed,  it  would  never  do  to  disturb  so  soon 
the  pope's  good  humor.  Besides,  to  disappoint  the  deputies  by 
sending  them  away  without  an  answer  would  be  to  exasperate 
the  very  men  of  influence  among  the  Huguenots  whom  it  had 
been  Henry's  purpose,  in  convening  them  at  Mantes,  to  pro- 
pitiate. In  the  end,  the  Huguenot  memorial  was  referred  to  a 
commission  composed  of  six  or  seven  persons,  all  Roman  Cath- 
olics (in  order  to  avoid  giving  umbrage  to  the  more  violent 
men  of  the  royalist  party) — Chancellor  Chiverny,  the  privy 
councillors  D'O,  Bellievre,  Schomberg,  Pontcarre  and  Chandon, 
and  Forget,  one  of  the  secretaries  of  state.2     Xor  did  even 


1  "  Pource  que  mes  sujets  rebelles  faisoyent  contenance  de  vouloir  entendre 
a  quelque  paix,  je  n'ai  voulu  que  ce  fust  sans  vous  appeller,  afin  que  rien 

fist  a  vostre  prejudice :  comme  vous  en  avez  este  asseures  par  la  promesse  que 
firent  lors  les  princes  et  officiers  de  ma  couronne,  lesquels  jurerent  en  ma 
presence,  qu'il  ne  seroit  rien  traitte  en  la  conference  de  paix  contre  ceux  de 
la  religion."     Account  of  the  interview  in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue^  v.  780. 

2  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste,  etc.,  i.  264;  Vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay, 
ii.  210.  M.  Anquez  (Histoire  des  Assemblies  politiqnesdesReformes  de  France, 
58),  is  mistaken  in  speaking  of  "  le  chancelier  de  Bellievre."  Pomponne  de 
Bellievre,  the  illustrious  negotiator,  did  not  reach  the  chancellorship  until 
1599,  upon  the  death  of  Philippe  Hurault,  Count  of  Chiverny,  brother-in- 
law  of  the  historian  De  Thou.  Chiverny  had  held  the  office  for  sixteen 
years,  having  himself,  in  1583,  succeeded  Cardinal  Birague.     He  had  been 


1593.  THE  EDICT  OF   NANTES.  381 

this  body  find  it  a  matter  altogether  easy  to  solve  the  ques- 
tion of  Huguenot  rights,  and  were  fain  to  have  recourse,  by 
the  king's  permission,  to  the  advice  of  some  members  of  the 
Protestant  party.  Bouillon  and  Dnplessis  Mornay  were  re- 
quested to  confer  with  them.  Day  after  day  the  subject  was 
carefully  considered,  in  the  apartments  of  the  latter,  by  two 
earnest  men  on  either  side.  But  when  the  fruit  of  so  much 
consultation  was  at  last  brought  forth,  in  the  form  of  an  an- 
nouncement to  the  deputies  of  what  the  monarch  could  grant 
them,  the  terms  were  scarcely  such  as  to  satisfy  even  so  patient 
a  people  as  the  Reformed,  accustomed  through  a  whole  genera- 
tion to  the  denial  of  their  natural  rights. 

The  Huguenots  were  again  offered  the  full  advantage  of  the 

Edict  of  1577,  with  its  corollary  in  the  shape  of  the  articles 

agreed  upon  later  at  Nerac  and  Fleix.     This  edict  was  to  be 

verified  anew  in  all  the  parliaments  of  the  realm, 

Proposed  ,   .  .  , .  >»         .  , 

ordinance  of  without  restriction  or  modification,  and  the  intolerant 
edicts  of  1585  and  1588  were  once  more  to  be  declared 
null  and  void.  Inasmuch,  however,  as  changes  had  been  ren- 
dered necessary  by  the  recent  troubles,  it  was  provided  that  a 
special  ordinance  should  be  drawn  up — not,  indeed,  to  be  pub- 
lished to  the  world  (lest  new  favor  might  seem  to  be  shown  to 
the  Huguenots),  but  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  chancellor 
and  the  secretaries  of  state  for  their  guidance,  and  to  be  inti- 
mated by  his  majesty  to  parliaments,  governors,  and  lieutenant- 
governors  of  provinces  as  necessity  might  dictate. 

The  ordinance  thus  to  be  held  in  reserve  was  not  given  with 
precision,  but  was  stated  to  be  substantially  as  follows :  The  Ro- 
man Catholic  religion  was  to  be  re-established  in  all  places  from 
which  it  had  been  excluded  during  the  late  disturbances ;  but 
the  Protestant  religion  was  to  remain  as  heretofore.  Since  the 
open  country  afforded  no  safety  for  the  exercise  of  the  Reformed 
rites,  the  king  would  provide  the  Protestants  with  places  for 
worship  in  the  cities  obedient  to  him,  according  to  the  circum- 
stances of  each.     In  the  royal  court  Protestant  worship  might 


master  of  the  seals  for  the  five  years  previous,  during  the  cardinal's  old  age. 
See  De  Thou,  vi.  (bk.  78)  311 ;  ix.  (bk.  123)  315. 


382     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XIV. 

be  held  freely  so  long  as  the  queen's  sister  was  there ;  in  her 
absence  it  might  still  be  held,  but  with  more  caution,  without 
psalm-singing,  in  the  houses  of  such  noblemen  as  the  Dukes  of 
Bouillon,  La  Tremouille,  and  Rohan,  and  Duplessis  Morn  ay. 
Under  similar  restrictions  the  Protestants  might  worship  in  the 
army,  in  the  quarters  of  the  captains  of  the  men-at-arms  and 
others.  In  view  of  the  approaching  ceremonials  of  his  corona- 
tion and  the  convocation  of  the  order  "du  Saint  Esprit,''  and 
the  promise  there  to  be  given  to  exterminate  heresy,  the  king 
would,  through  no  oath  made  or  to  be  made,  hold  himself  bound 
to  wage  war  against  or  persecute  the  Protestants. 

Nor,  it  may  be  observed,  was  this  last  assurance  a  superfluous 

precaution.     For  in  the  engagement  which  Henry  entered  into 

at  Chartres,  before  his  investiture  and  coronation,  with 

The  king's 

coronation  hands  resting  upon  the  gospel,  and  kissing  the  sacred 
volume,  were  these  words:  "Moreover,  I  shall  en- 
deavor, according  to  my  ability,  in  good  faith,  to  drive  from  my 
jurisdiction  and  from  the  lands  subject  to  me  all  heretics  de- 
nounced by  the  church,  promising  on  oath  to  keep  all  that  has 
been  said.  So  help  me  God  and  these  holy  gospels  of  God!  " 
And  at  the  subsequent  convocation  of  the  order  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  he  swore,  on  the  wood  of  the  Holy  Cross,  to  observe,  even 
to  the  minutest  particular,  all  the  statutes  of  that  intolerant 
institution,  whose  very  foundation  had  been  laid  in  the  deter- 
mination to  root  out  of  France  the  enemies  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  and  Apostolic  religion.2 

In  order  to  meet  the  complaint  of  the  Huguenots  that,  while 
compelled,  like  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  kingdom,  to 
bear  the  burden  of  the  support  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
they  had  in  addition  to  defray  the  expenses  of  their  own  wor- 
ship, provision  was  made  for  the  establishment  of  a  fund  in  the 
royal  treasury,  in  the  name  of  madame,  the  queen's  sister,  for 
the  purpose  of  paying  the  salaries  of  the  Huguenot  ministers.1 


1  Cayet,  Chronologie  novenaire,  557.  -  Ibid.,  obi  supra.  562. 

3  "  Qu'il  seroit  faict  fondz  en  l'espargne  d'une  sonime  pour  l'entreteuement 
des  ministres,  dont  le  roolle  seroit  bailie,  deuement  certifie  par  les  provinces  " 
Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste  sur  la  vie  de  Duplessis  Mornaj  sou  mari, 


1593.  THE  EDICT   OF  NANTES.  383 

There  were  other  articles — allowing  Protestants  to  make  bequests 
to  their  churches  and  to  other  religious  purposes,  guaranteeing 
the  education  of  children  in  the  faith  of  their  parents,  and  per- 
mitting the  erection  of  Protestant  colleges  for  the  instruction 
of  the  youth  wherever  it  might  be  deemed  advisable.  With 
regard  to  the  last  point,  however,  the  king's  counsellors  dis- 
played a  remarkable  degree  of  apprehension  lest  it  might  cause 
trouble  ;  for  they  begged  that  it  should  not  be  reduced  to  writ- 
ing.1 

So  it  was  that,  despite  all  their  efforts  to  convince  the  king 
that  they  deserved  better  at  his  hands,  the  deputies  were  com- 
pelled to  leave  Mantes  with  a  reply  which  they  could  not  take 
the  responsibility  of  either  accepting  or  declining,  but  must  re- 
fer to  the  churches  for  their  decision.  It  is  a  noteworthy  cir- 
cumstance, however,  that,  while  engaged  in  the  fruitless  struggle 
to  obtain  justice,  they  did  not  confine  themselves  to  a  discussion 
"Union of  of  their  grievances  ;  but,  at  Mantes,  in  the  very  pres- 
ence of  the  court,  they  solemnly  renewed  the  ancient 
union  of  the  Huguenots,  confirmed,  at  various  intervals  of  time, 
at  Xismes,  at  Milhau,  at  Montauban,  and  at  La  Rochelle,  and 
again  swore  to  live  and  die  united  in  the  confession  of  faith 
heretofore  presented  to  the  kings  of  France.  Not  only  did 
Henry,  though  notified  of  their  intention,  express  no  disap- 
proval of  their  action,  but  he  is  even  said  to  have  urged  its 

i.  266.  The  inaccuracy  of  the  edition  of  Duplessis  Mornay's  memoires  of  which 
this  work  of  his  wife  is  the  first  volume,  was  pointed  out  in  a  report  made  to 
the  French  Government,  in  1850,  by  M.  Avenel  (reprinted  in  Bulletin  de  la 
Societe  de  1'histoire  du  Prot.  francais,  ii.  101-107).  In  the  passage  above  cited, 
the  editor  has  read  "  PEspagne  "  for  "  l'espargne  "  (Pepargne)  ;  and,  strange  to 
say,  M.  Anquez,  in  his  extremely  valuable  "  Histoire  des  Assemblies  poli- 
tiques,"  to  the  ability  and  general  thoroughness  of  which  I  wish  here  to  bear 
witness,  has  perpetuated  the  mistake  (p.  109).  In  view  of  the  relations  be- 
tween the  two  neighboring  kingdoms  of  France  and  Spain,  not  to  speak  of 
the  ultra  Roman  Catholic  sentiments  of  Philip  II.,  the  idea  of  establishing  in 
Spain  a  fund  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Protestant  ministers  of  France  is 
scarcely  less  ludicrous  than  would  have  been  a  proposal  to  place  the  money 
at  Rome  with  the  request  that  Pope  Clement  should  act  as  honorary  treas- 
urer. 

1  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste,  etc.,  i.  265-267;  Vie  de  Duplessis  Mor- 
nay,  210,  211. 


384      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.  Ch.   XIV. 

necessity.1  The  National  Synod  of  Montauban,  meeting  a  few 
months  later,  enjoined  upon  all  the  churches  of  the  realm  to 
swear  to  sustain  the  union  formed  in  the  assembly  of  Mantes. 
For  this  purpose  the  Protestants  were  to  meet  either  in  their 
churches  or,  where  they  constituted  the  entire  population,  as  in 
some  parts  of  Languedoc,  in  the  municipal  halls.3 

The  assembly  of  Mantes  concluded  its  sessions  on  the  twenty- 
third  of  January,  1594.  The  four  years  that  intervened  be- 
tween this  date  and  the  enactment  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  in 
Protracted  April,  1598,  were  occupied  by  an  unintermitted  strug- 
sSfprotes-  gle  on  the  part  of  the  Protestant  churches  of  France, 
tant  nghts.  through  their  representatives,  to  secure  the  definite 
recognition  of  their  rights.  Nor  can  it  be  said  that  Henry 
seemed  to  be  averse  to  granting  them,  at  some  future  time,  such 
guarantees  as  they  might  require  for  their  safety  and  comfort. 
More  keenly  alive,  however,  to  the  difficulties  of  his  own  posi- 
tion than  to  the  intolerable  load  of  oppression  beneath  which 
they  were  staggering,  his  majesty  was  more  than  willing  that 
they  should  wait  uncomplainingly  until  such  time  as  he  had  ar- 
ranged his  temporal  affairs  quite  to  his  satisfaction.  And  in 
the  successive  arrangements  which  he  entered  into  for  the  re- 
duction of  the  rebellious  leaders  and  cities  of  the  League,  he 
scouted  the  idea  that  his  old  allies  ought  any  further  to  be 
called  in  for  consultation,  despite  the  fact  that,  as  has  been  seen, 
each  pacificatory  edict  trenched  very  materially  upon  the  Edict 
of  1577,  to  whose  integrity  and  maintenance  he  had  repeatedly 
bound  himself.  He  did,  indeed,  again  send  the  edict  in  ques- 
tion to  the  parliaments  for  renewed  registry,  and  he  exerted  his 
powers  of  persuasion  to  induce  the  refractory  judges  to  proceed 
at  once  to  the  distasteful  act.5     Yet  his  efforts  were  to  so  little 


1  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste,  etc.,  i.  268  ;  Tie  de  Duplessis  Mornay, 
211,  212  ;  Anquez,  59,  60.  Benoist,  Histoire  de  l'edit  de  Nantes,  i.  Ill,  112. 
has  some  judicious  observations  on  this  important  circumstance. 

2  Article  XXIII.  of  the  National  Synod  of  Montauban  (inatieres  g^nerales  . 
Aymon,  i.  181. 

:M'J'estois  present,"  wrote  M.  d'Esmery  (A.  De  Thou),  March  1.1,  1594, 
"  quand  il  en  parla  a  Messieurs  les  presidens  et  deputes  de  la  court.  II  ne 
se  peult  rien  adjouster  a  l'affection  qu'il  monstra  avoir  en  cest  affaire."  Me- 
moires de  Duplessis  Mornay,  vi.  25. 


1594.  THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  385 

purpose  that  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  the  only  one  of  the  sov- 
ereign courts  that  obeyed  the  royal  injunction,  scarcely  rati- 
fied it  by  a  majority  of  six  votes  ;  whereas  at  Tours  it  had,  a  few 
years  before,  been  unanimously  approved,  while  yet  unaffected 
by  the  concessions  made  to  the  League.1 

Meanwhile  the  Huguenots  were  not  secure  against  the  perils 
arising  from  the  presence  of  false  or  timid  brethren.     At  Mantes, 
during  the  sessions  of  the  political  assembly,  a  public  discus- 
sion was  set  on  foot  between  the  famous  Roman  Catholic  con- 
trovertialist  Du  Perron  and  a  prominent  Protestant, 

DsnETcrs  from 

weakbreth-  Jean  Baptiste  Rotan,  pastor  and  doctor  of  theology 
from  La  Rochelle,  in  which  it  is  said  to  have  been 
previously  arranged  that  the  latter  should  betray  his  cause  by 
an  insufficient  defence.  "Whether  the  story  was  true  or  false, 
whether  Rotan  broke  down  at  the  last  moment  through  sudden 
fright  or  remorse,  or  really  fell  sick,  certain  it  is  that  he  yielded 
his  post  to  Michel  Berauld,  of  Montauban,  a  man  alike  proof 
against  corruption  and  impervious  to  fear.  With  such  an  an- 
tagonist the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  saw  that  they  had  nothing 
to  gain,  and  consequently  managed  to  have  the  discussion  given 
up.2  On  the  other  hand,  the  resolute  front  which  the  Hugue- 
nots determined  to  maintain,  as  against  the  acceptance  of  the 
unsatisfactory  edict  of  1577,  threatened  to  be  broken  by  the 
timidity  or  worldly  wisdom  of  some  of  their  own  number,  in 
and  about  the  capital,  who  weakly  petitioned  for  the  simple 
verification  of  that  edict,  and  so  called  down  upon  their  heads 

1  "  Bref  discours  par  lequel  chacung  peult  estre  esclairci  des  justes  proce- 
dures de  ceulx  de  la  relligion  reformee,"  in  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay, 
vii.  284. 

2  Agrippa  d'Aubigiv'\  iii.  365,  366,  affirms  the  treachery  of  Rotan,  which 
Benoist,  Histoire  de  Vedit  de  Nantes,  i.  112,  inclines  apparently  to  believe, 
and  Aymon,  Tous  les  Synodes,  i.  211,  212,  repeats  without  comment.  I  con- 
fess that  the  testimony  inculpating  Rotan  is,  in  my  judgment,  more  than  out- 
weighed by  the  marks  of  continued  confidence  reposed  in  him  by  the  National 
Synod  of  Montauban,  which,  while  electing  Berauld  moderator,  made  Rotan 
adjunct  or  assistant  moderator ;  and  not  only  (by  Article  L.  of  its  proceedings, 
"  matieres  generales  ")  thanked  him  for  the  part  he  had  taken  in  the  contro- 
versy at  Mantes,  but  appointed  him  the  first  of  twenty-one  theologians  to  take 
part  in  the  discussion  should  it  be  resumed.     Aymon,  ubi  supra,  i.  185,  186. 

Vol.  II.— 25 


3S6      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIV. 

the  censure  of  the  National  Synod  of  Montauban.1  There  was 
certainly  some  color  for  the  suspicion  that  the  proximity  of  the 
court  had  not  been  without  its  influence  in  obscuring  the  per- 
ception of  propriety,  if  not  in  corrupting  the  simplicity,  of  the 
Huguenots  of  Paris  and  of  the  lie  de  France,  when  this  prov- 
ince gravely  submitted  to  the  same  synod  the  question,  "Whether 
it  would  be  well  to  take  politic  action  in  conjunction  with  the 
Roman  Catholics  of  the  kingdom  against  the  pope  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  liberties  of  the  Gallican  Church.  No  wonder 
that  the  synod — fully  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  Gallican  party 
was  scarcely  less  hostile  to  the  Reformation  and  its  adherents 
than  were  the  ultramontanes,  that  in  the  bloody  persecutions  of 
which  the  Protestants  had  been  the  victims  for  the  past  three- 
quarters  of  a  century  they  had  suffered  about  as  much  from  the 
advocates  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  as  from  the  friends  of  the 
Concordat — flatly  informed  the  proponents  that  their  suggestion 
was  deemed  unworthy  of  being  submitted  for  deliberation.5 

The  Huguenots  held  a  political  assembly  at  Sainte  Foy,  on 
the  Dordogne,  by  permission  of  the  king,  on  the  fifteenth  of 
political  as-  ^U^J^  1594.3  The  deputies,  who  had  waited  upon  the 
saTnteFoy  king  at  Mantes,  nad  carried  to  the  provinces  the  offers 
juiy,  1594.  0f  t}ie  court;  and  their  constituents,  without  excep- 
tion, declared  the  terms  inadmissible.  It  was  one  great  ob- 
ject of  the  new  convocation  again  to  urge  upon  his  majesty 
the  redress  of  their  wrongs,  of  which  the  catalogue 
had  meantime  rather  increased  than  diminished.  N  ew 
treaties  had  been  made  with  cities  of  the  League,  involving 
fresh  instances  of  exclusion    for  the  Huguenots.     The  agents 


1  See  Article  XXII,  Aymon,  i.  181  ;  also,  Benoist,  i.  124. 

2  See  Article  IV.  (matieres  particulieres),  Aymon,  i.  190. 

3  Not  the  middle  of  May,  as  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  and  Anquez,  following  him, 
say.  The  acts  of  the  Synod  of  Montauban  (held  June  15-28)  refer  to  the  as- 
sembly as  about  to  be  convened.  Anquez's  slurring  remark  that  Dnplessifl 
Mornay  is  possibly  less  sincere,  when  he  says  that  the  assembly  came  together 
"  under  his  majesty's  authority  and  command,'1  than  D'Aubigne.  who  speaks 
of  the  king's  permission  as  being  couched  "  in  general  and  not  in  express 
terms,"  seems  to  be  uncalled  for.  The  correspondence  of  Duplessis  Mornay 
refers  to  this  permission  in  many  places  besides  that  cited  by  Anquez, 
and,  in  particular,  in  Duplessis  Mornay's  letter  to  Henry  IV.,  of  April  4,  1504. 


1594.  THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  3S7 

whom  they  despatched  to  the  north  had  grievances  to  narrate  in 
abundance — how  at  Paris  itself  a  "  lieutenant-civil  "  had  issued 
an  order  to  compel  all  persons,  on  pain  of  imprisonment,  to 
salute  pictures  of  the  saints,  crosses,  banners,  and  reliquaries, 
when  carried  through  the  public  streets  ;  how  at  Lyons  all  that 
refused  to  profess  the  Romish  faith  were  banished  the  city  and 
province  on  pain  of  death  ;  how  at  Rennes,  in  Brittany,  an  or- 
dinance of  the  provincial  parliament  forbade  the  reading,  sell- 
ing, or  possessing  of  Protestant  books ;  how  at  Bordeaux  the 
foulest  of  outrages  had  been  perpetrated  when,  in  open  session, 
a  president  of  the  Parliament  of  Guyenne  and  its  oldest  coun- 
sellor— the  same  envenomed  enemy  of  the  Reformed  religion 
who  wrote  a  famous  "  History  of  the  Rise,  Progress,  and  Over- 
throw of  the  Heresies  of  this  Century,"  to  which  I  have  had 
frequent  occasion  to  refer  in  treating  of  the  earlier  fortunes 
of  the  Huguenots  ' — not  only  ordered  the  disinterment  of  a 
child  buried  in  the  cemetery  of  Ozillac,  in  Saintonge,  but  took 
occasion  to  extend  the  inhuman  prescription  to  the  bodies  of 
all  Protestants  consigned  to  holy  ground  within  the  past  ten 
years.2  The  same  envoys  had  no  lack  of  complaints  to  pour 
into  the  king's  ear  respecting  the  funds  for  the  support  of  Prot- 
estant ministers  withheld  by  the  financial  officers  of  the  crown, 
respecting  the  "  chambres  mi-parties  "  nowhere  established,  re- 
specting the  danger  to  the  security  of  the  Huguenots  from  the 
fact  that  the  League  now  held  the  chief  places  in  the  royal 
council,  in  the  army,  in  the  administration,  rich  in  means,  for- 
midable to  the  monarch  himself,  still  more  formidable  to  the 
adherents  of  the  Protestant  faith.3 


1  Rise  of  the  Huguenots,  i.  373,  et  al. 

2  "  Memoire  pour  l'assemblee  de  ceux  de  la  relligion,  teneue  a  Saincte  Foy 
dresse  par  M.  Duplessis  bailie  a  M.  de  Chouppes,"  in  Memoires  de  Duplessis 
Mornay,  vi.  66-72.  The  incident  respecting  Florimond  de  Raemond  is  more 
fully  told  in  the  celebrated  pamphlet,  issued  two  or  three  years  later,  under 
the  title  of  "  Plaintes  des  eglises  rel'ormees  de  France  sur  les  violences  et  in- 
justices qui  leur  sont  faites  en  plusieurs  endroicts  du  royaume,  et  pour  les- 
quelles  elles  se  sont  en  toute  humilite  a  diverses  fois  addressees  a  sa  majeste." 
It  is  reprinted  in  the  sixth  volume  of  the  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  463-530.  See 
p.  522. 

3  "  Memoire  pour  Tassemblee,"  ubi  supra. 


388      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cu.  XIV 

But  the  representations  made  to  his  majesty  by  the  political 
assembly  of  Sainte  Foy  were  as  fruitless  as  those  of  the  confer- 
ence of  Mantes.  The  delegates,  Chouppes  and  Tixier,  were 
first  put  off  for  three  months,  to  receive  an  answer  at  Saint 
Germain  en  Laye.  When  the  court  condescended  to  reply,  it 
was  only  to  offer  terms  even  more  unsatisfactory  than  before — 
the  Edict  of  1577  mutilated,  if  possible,  more  than  ever,  since 
a  greater  number  of  its  provisions  were  infringed  by  recent 
compacts ;  the  articles  respecting  the  exercise  of  worship  at 
court  and  in  the  army,  the  maintenance  of  the  ministry,  and 
the  cities  of  refuge,  purposely  omitted  ;  other  articles  restricted, 
rendered  obscure,  entirely  changed.  Even  these  paltry  offers 
could  not  be  obtained  in  writing ;  they  must  be  placed  in  care 
of  some  Protestant  gentleman  of  the  royal  council,  signed,  in- 
deed, by  the  king  and  countersigned  by  a  secretary  of  state, 
but  not  to  be  published  until  some  future  time  when  verified  by 
parliament.1 

Before  adjourning  to  reassemble  at  Saumur,  on  the  return  of 
the  deputies  to  court,  the  assembly  of  Sainte  Foy  had  not  been 
political  or-  idle.  It  had  taken  in  hand  and  remodelled  the  polit- 
theSgue-01  ical  organization  of  the  Huguenots  to  suit  the  altered 
nots*  condition  of  things.     Twenty-eight  public  and  eight 

secret  articles  attest  the  zeal  with  which  it  applied  itself  to  a 
difficult  task.  The  articles  provide  for  a  general  assembly  of 
the  Reformed  churches,  to  meet  once  or  twice  a  year  and  to 
consist  of  ten  members.  One  member  was  to  be  elected  by 
Brittany  and  Normandy  ;  a  second  by  Picardv,  Champagne,  the 

?rincipality  of  Sedan,  and  the  district  of  Metz ;  the  third  by 
le  de  France,  the  Pays  Chartrain,  Dunois,  Berry,  and  (  >:  - 
leanois ;  the  fourth  by  Touraine,  Anjou,  Maine,  Perche,  Ven- 
domois,  and  Loudunois.  Saintonge,  Aunis,  La  Rochelle,  and 
Angoumois  were  to  send  the  fifth ;  Poitou  and  Chatellerault 
the  sixth  ;  Burgundy,  Lyonnais,  Provence,  and  Dauphiny  the 
seventh ;  Lower  Languedoc  and  Auvergne,  with  Vivarais,  the 
eighth ;  Lower  Guyenne  and  Gascony,  with  Perigord  and 
Limousin,  the  ninth;  and  Upper  Languedoc,   Auvergne,  and 


1  "Bref  discours,"  ubi  supra,  vii.  282. 


1595. 


THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  389 


Guyenne,  with  Quercy,  etc.,  the  tenth.  Of  the  members,  four 
were  to  be  taken  from  the  noblesse  and  tiers  etat  respec- 
tively, and  two  were  to  be  ministers  chosen  in  rotation  by  the 
provinces.  Each  of  the  ten  ecclesiastical  provinces  was  also  to 
have  its  own  particular  assembly,  composed  of  a  nobleman,  a 
minister,  and  a  magistrate  from  each  of  the  "  colloques  "  within 
its  geographical  limits,  and  its  particular  council,  of  from  five 
to  seven  members,  whose  duty  would  be  to  watch  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  province,  to  appoint  the  governors  of  the  places 
of  surety  within  its  bounds,  and  to  discharge  such  other  trusts 
as  might  naturally  fall  to  it.  The  provincial  assemblies  were 
empowered  to  select  the  members  both  of  the  provincial  coun- 
cils and  of  the  general  assemblies.1  Such,  in  brief,  was  the 
plan  of  government  instituted  by  the  Huguenots  for  their  own 
protection  at  this  juncture,  when  the  defection  of  their  former 
head,  the  present  king,  and  the  apathy  of  the  court  in  redress- 
ing their  wrongs  seemed  to  make  it  incumbent  upon  them  to 
stand  on  their  guard  and  not  surfer  themselves  to  be  taken  at 
unawares  and  overwhelmed  by  their  sleepless  enemies.  As  to 
electing  a  new  protector  in  place  of  Henry,  the  idea  was  virtu* 
ally  abandoned  about  this  time.  The  Duke  of  Bouillon  would, 
indeed,  have  been  pleased  to  see  the  elector  palatine  chosen  to 
fill  the  office  once  held  by  the  King  of  Navarre ;  but  the  pro- 
posal met  with  little  favor  in  any  quarter.2  It  was  well  known 
that  Henry  looked  upon  the  selection  of  a  successor  to  himself 
with  such  jealousy  that  it  would  have  been  likely  to  go  ill  with 
any  one  so  foolhardy  as  to  accept  the  perilous  distinction.  It 
was  equally  notorious  that  a  great  number,  if  not  indeed  the 
majority,  of  the  Huguenots  felt  that  they  had  had  quite  enough 
of  what  they  styled  familiarly  the  "  Protectoral  Tyranny,"  and, 
having  gotten  rid  of  one  somewhat  arbitrary  and  self-willed 
chief,  were  in  no  haste  to  replace  him  by  another  respecting 
whom  it  was  by  no  means  certain  that  he  would  not  prove  even 
more  obnoxious. 


1  Agrippa  d'Aubigne  devotes  an  entire  chapter  of  his  history  to  the  articles 
adopted  at  Sainte  Foy  (iii.  367-374).     See,  also,  Anquez,  62-66. 

2  Benoist,  Histoire  de  l'edit  de  Nantes,  i.  123. 


390       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ctt  XIV. 

Disappointed,  but  not  having  abated  a  whit  of  their  deter- 
mination to  maintain  their  rights,  the  Huguenots  again  met 
Assembi  of  m  P°^tical  assembly — at  Saumur,  which,  under  the 
ruarmui595b"  governorsnip  °f  Duplessis  Mornay,  had  in  a  sense 
become  their  central  point.  Although  the  convocation 
was  appointed  for  December,  1594,  it  was  not  until  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  February,  1595,  that  the  return  of  Chouppes  and 
Tixier  from  their  long  detention  at  court  permitted  the  sessions 
to  open.  But  if  the  two  deputies  had  tarried  long,  they  brought 
back  little  to  satisfy  the  impatience  of  the  Protestant  churches. 
His  majesty  would  concede  nothing  beyond  his  previous  offers. 
The  assembly  then  resolved,  as  a  last  resort,  to  try  the  virtue  of 
a  brief  petition,  which  they  hoped  might  touch  the  king's  heart, 
and  sent  it  by  such  men  as  La  Noue  and  La  Prim aud aye.  This, 
too,  proved  an  abortive  attempt.  The  Huguenots  were  gravely 
asked  to  content  themselves  with  the  remaining  shreds  of  the 
Edict  of  1577,  a  law  which  in  its  integrity  they  had,  as  we  have 
seen,  pronounced  unsatisfactory,  but  which  now,  shorn  of  prettv 
much  everything  it  may  have  contained  of  advantage  to  Prot- 
estantism, was  desired  by  their  opponents  more  than  by  the 
Huguenots.  If  anything  could  add  to  the  annoyance  of  the 
churches,  it  was  the  fact  that  the  court  still  made  a  mystery  <  »f 
its  dealings  with  them,  as  if  ashamed  to  have  it  known  that  it 
would  do  anything  for  them.  At  the  very  moment  when  edicts 
in  favor  of  the  League  were  at  once  concluded  by  the  royal 
council,  registered  promptly  by  the  parliaments,  published  amid 
popular  applause  in  every  city,  and  carried  into  immediate  exe- 
cution, the  paltry  responses  which  the  government  deigned  to 
send  to  the  Huguenots,  after  long  and  provoking  delays,  wore 
conveyed  in  most  ungracious  forms.  In  the  present  instance, 
as  a  great  favor,  the  king's  reply  to  the  petition  forwarded 
through  La  None  and  his  companion  was  indeed  given  to  the 
former  in  writing,  but  he  was  instructed  merely  to  read  it  to  the 
assembly  of  his  brethren  in  the  faith,  and  that,  too,  not  until 
three  months  after  its  receipt.  Even  then  the  document  was 
not  in  any  proper  and  authentic  form.1 

1  "Bref  discours,"  ubi  supra,  vii.  284.  2o5. 


1596.  THE   EDICT   OF   NANTES.  391 

It  was  under  such   circumstances  that   the  fourth  political 

assembly   held  by  the   Protestants   since   Henry's   abjuration 

opened  its  sessions  at  Loudun,  on  the  first  of  April, 

Assembly  of  *  .  .  .         r 

Loudun.  159b.  It  was  an  important  convocation,  meeting  at  a 
momentous  epoch  in  Huguenot  history  in  particular, 
as  well  as  in  the  history  of  France  entire.  On  the  seventeenth 
of  January,  1595,  just  three  weeks  after  the  dastardly  attempt  of 
war  declared  Jean  Chastel  upon  the  king's  life,  Henry  signed  his 
t  spam.  £orma]  declaration  of  war  against  Philip  the  Second  of 
Spain,  a  monarch  who,  not  content  with  the  butchery  of  his  own 
subjects,  boldly  resorted  to  the  assassin's  knife  that  he 'might 
rid  himself  of  powerful  or  dangerous  rivals.  Much  as,  against 
such  an  enemy,  open  warfare  might  be  preferable  to  a  deadly 
conflict  under  the  forms  of  peace,  it  was  no  child's  play  that 
Henry  of  Bourbon  should  throw  down  the  gauntlet  for  Philip 
the  Second  to  pick  up.  There  were  in  France  itself  elements 
that  favored  the  Spaniard.  Not  to  speak  of  the  Spanish  troops 
actually  upon  the  soil  of  Brittany,  the  Duke  of  Mercceur,  who 
had  invited  them  there,  still  held  a  great  part  of  that  important 
province  in  the  name  of  the  League.  This  treacherous  and  de- 
fiant nobleman,  though  indebted  for  his  greatness  to  the  blind 
favor  of  Henry  the  Third  and  to  the  marriage  by  which  he  had 
Mercceur  in  been  permitted  to  become  Henry's  brother-in-law, 
had,  as  we  have  seen,  the  unspeakable  meanness  to 
join  his  kinsmen  in  a  conspiracy  directed  against  the  authority, 
if  not  indeed  against  the  life,  of  his  benefactor.  Upon  that 
benefactor's  assassination  his  malignity,  far  from  abating,  led 
him  openly  to  approve  the  murderous  deed.  He  suffered  a 
book  to  be  published  in  his  province,  and  with  his  ducal  "privi- 
lege," wherein  the  author,  Bishop  Le  Bossu,  a  creature  of  his 
whom  he  had  raised  to  the  see  of  Nantes,  denounced  the  de- 
ceased monarch  as  worse  than  Nero,  or  Herod,  or  Judas,  as 
a  tyrant,  as  traitor  to  humankind  and  to  the  Church ;  while 
his  assassination  was  approved  as  proceeding  from  an  inspi- 
ration of  the  Holy  Ghost,  his  murderer  enrolled  as  a  martyr 
worthy  of  canonization,  the  very  knife  which  Jacques  Clem- 
ent had  used  declared  to  be  a  precious  relic  that  ought  to 
be   carefully   preserved  for  the  edification  of  future   genera- 


392      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIV. 

tions.1  Since  the  accession  of  Henry  the  Fourth  the  duke  had 
become  still  more  insolent,  hoping,  in  the  dismemberment  of 
France,  to  secure  for  himself  some  independent  kingdom  or 
principality  on  the  coast  of  the  Atlantic  ocean.  While  other 
chieftains  of  the  League  submitted,  he  still  expected  to  maintain 
himself  against  his  lawful  superior,  or,  at  least,  to  extort,  as  was 
the  case  in  the  end,  very  favorable  terms  as  the  price  of  return 
to  his  allegiance.  Nor  was  it  alone  in  Brittany  that  treason 
lurked.  The  very  generals  of  Henry  were  not  all  above  sus- 
picion, and  many  of  those  who  had  reluctantly  abandoned  the 
League  were  but  half-hearted  in  their  support  of  a  king  still  sus- 
pected of  Huguenot  leanings,  as  against  the  Spanish  monarch 
who  had  figured  for  more  than  a  generation  as  the  champion 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  cause. 

The  first  year  of  the  war  with  Spain  had,  therefore,  been 
marked  less  by  victories  than  by  reverses  ;  for  the  gains  in 
Burgundy  made  by  no  means  so  deep  an  impression  upon  the 
world  as  the  loss  by  the  French  of  Oambray,  in  October,  1595, 
and  the  fall  of  Calais,  in  April,  1596. 2 

Engrossed  in  the  prosecution  of  this  war,  the  king  was  more 
than  ever  indisposed  to  deal  with  the  Huguenot  question  other- 
wise than  by  temporizing  expedients.  Meantime,  what  little 
hope  the  Protestants  had  hitherto  cherished  had  wellnigh  van- 
ished. The  king  had  indeed  fulfilled  his  promise  so  far  as  to 
renew  by  public  proclamation  the  edict  given  at  Poitiers  in 
1577,  and  since  then  already  twice  re-enacted;3  but  that  was 
all  that  had  been  done  for  the  protection  of  the  Huguenots. 
They  had  now  new  grounds  for  anxiety.  A  part  of  the  west 
Was  in  commotion.     The  oppressive  conduct  of  the  Duke  of 


1  '«  Manifeste  contre  M.  de  Mercoeur,  duquel  le  roy  suspendit  la  publication 
cause  du  traicte  qui  intervint,  sa  majeste  s'approchant  de  Bretaigne,  1595." 
InMemoires  de  Dnplessis  Mornay,  vi.  391,  392. 

2  See  De  Thou,  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  etc. 

3  At  Mantes,  after  Henry  the  Third's  death,  in  1589  ;  again  in  1591 ;  and, 
now  for  the  third  time,  in  November,  1594.  Registered  by  the  Parliament 
of  Paris,  January  31,  1595,  after  a  continuous  deliberation  of  twelve  days, 
and,  as  we  have  seen,  by  a  scanty  majority  of  six  votes.  De  Thou,  viii.  512; 
Lestoile,  ii.  257-259. 


1596.  THE  EDICT  OF   NANTES.  393 

fipernon  had  caused  an  armed  uprising  of  the  nobles  of  both  re- 
ligions in  defence  of  the  tiers  etat  of  Saintonge.  Five  hundred 
horse  and  six  thousand  foot  soldiers  were  either  in  the  field  or 
ready  to  take  it ;  castles  were  captured,  and  cities  of  the  neigh- 
borhood were  summoned  to  join  the  struggle  for  the  common 
good."*  A  barbarous  massacre  had  been  perpetrated  near  La 
Chataicmeraie,2  much  after  the  fashion  of  that  ill-fated  carnage 
at  Yassy,  a  third  of  a  century  before,  which  kindled 

The  massacre  <•     i        t*  .     .,  TT  it* 

nearLaCha-  the  names  or  the  first  civil  war.  Here,  too,  the -Prot- 
estants were  attacked  when  engaged  in  their  public 
services.  The  troops  of  the  garrison  of  Rochefort  had  been 
specially  invited  by  the  bloodthirsty  Lady  de  la  Chataigneraie 
to  come  and  put  an  end  to  the  indignity  which  she  and  her 
children  felt  to  be  put  upon  them  by  the  Huguenots,  in  celebrat- 
ing their  worship  close  to  her  lands  on  those  of  a  gentleman 
friendly  to  the  Protestant  religion.  Full  well  did  they  execute 
their  commission,  sparing  neither  man  nor  woman,  neither 
decrepit  age  nor  innocent  childhood.  Among  the  slain  was  a 
babe  that  had  been  brought  to  be  baptized  at  the  "  preche,"  and 
a  boy  so  tender  in  years  and  so  unsuspicious  in  nature  that  he 
tried  to  save  his  life  by  offering  his  murderer  the  insignificant 
sum  of  eight  sous  for  his  ransom.3 

Exasperated  by  this  savage  butchery,  the  Huguenots  of  Poi- 
tou  promptly  summoned  a  provincial  assembly  at  Fontenay, 
not  far  from  the  scene  of  the  incident,  to  deliberate  upon  the 
measures  to  be  adopted  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  punish- 
ment of  the  guilty,  and  to  urge  his  majesty  by  no  means  to  grant 
an  amnesty  under  the  provisions  of  any  subsequent  treaty.4 

Such  were  the  circumstances  in  which  the  deputies  of  the 
Huguenots  of  the  whole  kingdom  convened  at  Loudun,  to  hear 
from  the  mouth  of  La  Noue  and  La  Primaudaye  the  report 


1  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Lomenie,  September  16,  1595,  Memoires,  vi.  353. 

2  Now  a  village  of  about  eighteen  hundred  inhabitants,  in  the  department 
of  Vendee. 

3  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste,  etc.,  i.  292,  293.  See,  especially,  the 
account  in  "  Plaintes  des  Eglises  Reformees  de  France  "  (1597),  reprinted  in 
Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  vi.  477. 

4  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Lomenie,  September  27,  1595,  in  Memoires,  vi.  358. 


The  truce  to 
be  revived. 


394      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch  XIV. 

of  their  ill  success.  Xo  wonder  that  the  conclusion  reached, 
after  listening  to  the  report,  was  that  it  was  a  vain  thing  to 
entertain  any  further  hopes  from  deputations  to  the  court. 
What  was  to  be  done?  On  mature  deliberation  the  prevalent 
opinion  was  that,  since  no  peace  would  be  granted 
them,  the  Huguenots  must  fall  back  upon  the  truce 
into  which  Henry  of  Kavarre,  as  their  representative,  had  en 
tered  with  Henry  the  Third.  Certainly,  it  was  argued,  the  pres- 
ent monarch  is  bound  by  the  engagements  made  by  his  prede- 
cessor. Moreover,  at  his  accession  his  majesty  declared  it  to 
be  his  will  to  have  the  articles  of  the  truce  executed  in  all  point-. 
until  such  time  as  a  free  council,  whether  universal  or  national, 
and  a  meeting  of  the  states  general  of  the  kingdom  should  de- 
vise a  permanent  settlement.  The  Huguenots  have,  therefore, 
the  declarations  of  two  monarchs  in  their  favor.  Possessing 
no  other  sufficient  law  to  defend  their  lives,  they  ought  at  once 
to  have  recourse  to  the  protection  which  they  had  an  indefeasible 
right  to  claim. 

Even  now,  however,  the  desire  for  peace  led  the  assembly  of 
Loudun  to  send  a  final  messenger  to  the  king.  M.  de  Vnlson 
found  Henry  engaged  in  the  long  siege  of  La  Fere,  and  still 
more  reluctant  than  before  to  notice  his  importunate  petitioners. 
Not  only  did  he  somewhat  summarily  dismiss  Vulson  with  the 
same  offers  that  had  so  often  been  rejected  by  the  Protestants, 
but  Yulson  was  also  the  bearer  of  a  peremptory  command  to 
the  members  of  the  Loudun  assembly  at  once  to  break  up  their 
meeting  and  return  each  to  his  province.  Accepting  the  de- 
cision as  final,  "the  deputies  prepared  themselves,  after  suppli- 
cation to  Almighty  God,  to  obey  his  majesty's  commands,  and, 
retiring  to  their  distant  homes,  there  to  provide  for  their  safety, 
according  to  the  tenor  of  the  truce,  in  as  orderly  a  manner  as 
possible,  and  with  as  little  damage  to  the  king's  in  teres" 
might  be."  ' 

It  is  worth  while  here  to  inquire  more  particularly  into  the 
spirit  and  intentions  of  the  Huguenots  at  this  important  junct- 

1  "  Bref  discours,"ubi  supra,  vii.  286,  287  ;  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste, 
etc.,  i.  300,  301. 


1596.  THE   EDICT   OF  NANTES.  395 

ure  ;  when  even  the  most  friendly  of  their  Homan  Catholic 
contemporaries  seem  to  have  condemned  their  persistence  as 
Attitudeofthe  ill-timed.  So  true  is  it  that  the  just  demands  of  the 
Huguenots.  weaker  party,  if  urged  in  a  time  of  public  quiet,  are 
wont  to  be  treated  with  coldness  or  contempt ;  if  brought  forward 
during  a  season  of  calamitous  reverses,  are  stigmatized  as  the 
unpatriotic  utterances  of  men  who  take  advantage  of  the  com- 
mon disasters  to  secure  private  ends. 

The  Protestants  were  advancing  no  fresh  and  novel  requests. 
When  Henry  found  fault  with  them  for  their  inopportune 
clamors,  and  suggested  that  they  wait  until  after  the  conclusion 
of  the  war  with  Spain,  he  well  knew  that  they  claimed  no  more 
than  they  had  asked  at  the  date  of  his  accession  and  in  every  suc- 
ceeding year.  The  fact  was  that  the  king  and  those  about  him 
had  been  trading  upon  the  well-known  Huguenot  endurance. 
The  Protestants  had  borne  so  much,  that  they  might  be  expected 
to  bear  more  ;  they  had  so  long  submitted  to  injustice,  that  they 
were  counted  upon  as  certain  to  continue  to  furnish  the  edifying 
spectacle  of  a  body  of  men  whom  nothing  could  provoke  to  re- 
sistance. It  was  forgotten  that  the  most  exemplary  patience 
has  its  bounds.  It  was  forgotten  that  the  Huguenots,  who  were 
so  loath  to  resent  the  neglect  of  their  interests  on  the  part  of  one 
from  whom  they  had  least  expected  it,  were,  after  all,  the  same 
men  that  had  waged  war  for  an  entire  generation  against  their 
oppressors.  It  was  certainly  a  bitter  disappointment  that  the 
leader  who  had  stood  at  their  head  for  so  great  a  part  of  the 
conflict  should  have  gone  over  to  the  side  of  the  enemy,  and 
should  now  betray  more  anxiety  to  conciliate  his  new  partisans 
than  desire  to  reward  the  fidelity  of  the  old  comrades  to  whom 
he  owed  his  life  and  crown.  But  the  Huguenots  and  their 
representatives  at  Loudun  had  accustomed  themselves  to  the 
posture  of  their  affairs,  and  were  resolved  to  make  the  best  of 
it.  At  least  they  would  not  consent,  while  favors  of  every  kind 
were  showered  upon  the  former  adherents  of  the  League,  to  act 
as  slaves  whom  no  amount  of  oppression  could  goad  to  manly 
resistance. 

"  I  have  written  to  you,"  said  Duplessis  Morn  ay  in  a  letter 
to  a  friend  across  the  Channel,  "respecting  our  assembly  of  Lou- 


396       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cii.  XIV. 

dun.     Every  one  there  desires  peace,  but  every  one  is  weary  of 

the  uncertainty  of  our  condition,  resulting  especially  from  the 

ris;or  of  the  parliaments  and  of  all  the  courts  of  iustice 

Views  of  J 

Dupiessis  Mor- of  the  kingdom,  which  still  put  into  execution  the 
edicts  of  the  League.  It  is  vain  to  preach  patience  to 
them.  They  reply  that  they  have  had  patience,  but  to  no  pur- 
pose. The  king  has  been  reigning  for  seven  years,  and  their 
condition  daily  grows  worse.  Everything  that  it  wishes  is  done 
for  the  League.  Neither  the  court  nor  the  tribunals  refuse  any- 
thing to  its  adherents.  The  story  of  the  Prodigal  Son  does  not 
compare  with  their  treatment.  At  least,  say  the  Huguenots, 
after  having  killed  for  them  the  fatted  calf,  let  not  the  rope  be 
left  about  our  necks  as  the  reward  of  our  fidelity."  ] 

But  there  was  danger  in  the  air.  There  was  such  a  thing  as 
presuming  too  much  on  Huguenot  patience.2  The  scales  were 
held  with  too  unequal  a  hand.  Men  asked  themselves  involun- 
tarily: "What  would  the  result  have  been,  had  it  been  some 
poor  Huguenot  that  lost  a  Calais  or  a  Cambray  intrusted  to 
him  for  safe-keeping  ?  "  3 

Dupiessis  Mornay  was  not  alone  in  his  sombre  prognostica- 
tions. Odet  de  la  Noue,  worthy  son  of  the  redoubtable  knight 
ofodetde  of  the  Iron  Arm,  warned  the  king  of  danger  in  ad- 
ia  Noue.  mirable  letters,  models  of  a  respectful  frankness  which 
does  not  flinch  from  speaking  unpalatable  truths  even  in  the 
ears  of  royalty.  The  Huguenots,  he  told  him,  loved  peace  and 
desired  no  other  protector  than  Henry  of  Xavarre.  Their  pres- 
ervation was  a  matter  of  importance  to  him ;  for  he  would  find 
in  his  kingdom  no  more  faithful,  obedient,  and  courageous  men 
than  they.  Yet  they  were  treated  throughout  France  as  the 
very  dregs  of  the  people,  as  men  without  standing  in  the  eye 
of  the  law.  These  grievances,  not  in  one  province,  but  in  all 
the  provinces,  had  brought  them  to  the  resolution  to  support 
themselves  so  as  to  stand  erect,  without  waiting  for  the  hope 

1  Dupiessis  Mornay  to  La  Fontaine,  May  3,  1596,  Memoires,  vi.  468. 

2  "On  se  fonde  trop  sur  nostre  patience,  laquelle  par  tant  dinjustices  et  de 
desnis  de  justice  pourroit  changer."     Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 

3  "Que  seroit-ce  si  ung  povre  huguenot  avoit  perdeu  ou  ung  Calais  ou  ung 
Cambray,  quiluy  eust  este  bailie  en  garde  ?"     Ibid.,  vi.  467. 


1596.  THE   EDICT  OF  NANTES.  397 

of  rising  again  when  once  they  might  have  fallen  to  the  ground. 
The  truce,  made  with  Henry  the  Third  in  1589,  authorized  the 
Huguenots  to  retain  for  this  purpose  all  the  places  they  then 
held.  The  promise  made  by  his  present  majesty  to  the  Prot- 
estant deputies  at  Sainte  Foy  invited  them  to  retain  them.  In 
addition  to  this  the  Huguenots  had  a  very  strong  reason  for 
pursuing  such  a  course,  in  that  they  would  be  lost  and  become 
the  prey  of  their  enemies  if  they  should  give  the  cities  up. 
"  I  will  therefore  tell  you  frankly,"  said  La  Noue,  "  that  we  are  f 
determined  not  to  relax  our  hold  upon  a  single  one  of  them,  but 
to  keep  and  maintain  them  at  any  cost,  until  by  some  written 
edict  such  provision  shall  be  made  for  our  grievances  that  we 
shall  have  no  further  occasion  for  fear.  We  shall  be  met  with 
reference  to  the  edict  of  1577  ;  but  that  edict  is  in  no  wise  ap- 
propriate to  the  present  time,  even  did  the  law  still  possess  the 
arms  and  legs  which  have  been  cut  off  by  the  treaties  of  the 
League." 

So  spoke  an  honest  Huguenot  and  a  true  and  loyal  French- 
man. Without  security,  without  greater  religious  liberty,  with- 
out "  chambres  mi-parties,"  in  place  of  parliaments  notoriously 
prejudiced  against  them,  it  was  impossible  to  satisfy  the  Prot- 
estants, and,  unless  they  should  be  satisfied,  all  other  remedies 
would  amount  to  nothing.  "  Here,  Sire,"  said  La  None,  "  is  a 
general  but  accurate  account  of  what  is  going  at  this  place, 
which  I  will  set  forth  once  more  in  still  fewer  words.  Just  as 
it  is  our  determination  to  persist  until  death  in  the  obedience 
we  owe  you,  to  live  in  peace  and  not  to  seek  war  in  any  fashion 
whatsoever ;  so  are  we  resolved  rather  to  undergo  a  thousand 
wars  and  a  thousand  disasters  than  relinquish  a  single  point  of 
what  is  absolutely  necessary  to  the  conservation  of  the  churches. 
I  believe,  Sire,  that  you  will  not  condemn  so  holy  a  desire,  for 
the  realization  of  which  you  formerly  took  so  great  pains  and  en- 
countered so  many  dangers  with  us.  .  .  .  As  for  myself,  I  am 
your  very  humble  and  obedient  subject,  and  shall  never  be  other. 
Yet  you  would  esteem  me  cowardly  and  wicked  if,  professing 
the  religion  I  do,  I  did  not  desire  and  seek  the  welfare  of  those 
who  make  a  similar  profession.  This  is  not  incompatible  with 
your  service.     Finally,  Sire,  I  beg  you,  in  God's  name,  give  us 


398      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIV. 

some  secure  position.  The  attempt  needs  but  to  be  made.  It 
is  not  a  difficult  matter.  Everything  will  go  well,  provided 
there  be  no  procrastination."  ' 

It  was  at  the  critical  juncture,  when  the  assembly  of  London 
was  on  the  point  of  breaking  up,  to  carry  throughout  France 
the  seeds  of  a  war  engendered  by  the  despair  of  ever  obtaining 
redress,  that  the  wise  counsels  of  a  man  of  known  moderation 
and  prudence  served  to  avert  a  calamity  threatening  disaster  to 
the  kingdom,  possibly  to  the  Huguenots  also.  So  long  as  it 
was  practicable,  Duplessis  Mornay  had  restrained  his  fellow- 
Protestants,  assuring  them  of  his  own  conviction  of  Henry's 
rectitude  of  purpose.  But  now  he  had  written  to  the  king 
himself,  and  signified  the  impossibility  of  feeding  his  subjects 
of  "the  religion"  upon  vain  and  delusive  hopes.  "I  recog- 
nize," he  wrote,  "  the  magnitude  of  the  matters  your  majesty  has 
in  hand  ;  and  yet  I  venture  to  tell  you,  Sire,  that  the  affair  here 
is  not  one  to  be  neglected." 2  And  he  had  urged  him,  as  the  best 
method  to  be  pursued,  to  send  some  good  man,  be  he  Roman 
Catholic  or  Protestant,  to  hear  and  report  upon  the  oppression 
of  which  the  Huguenots  had  but  too  much  reason  to  complain. 

Happily,  if  Henry  was  not  much  given  to  making  sudden 
changes  in  his  plans,  his  was  not  a  nature  that  hardens  itself 
concession  of  agamst  the  dictates  of  prudence  and  persists,  to  its 
the  king.  own  ruin?  jn  a  pernicious  course.  Apprehending  at 
length  the  peril  which  further  delay  might  entail,  he  promptly 
replied  to  Duplessis  Mornay  that  his  intentions  had  been  mis- 
understood, and  begged  that  nobleman  to  induce  his  fellow- 
Protestants  to  remain  at  Londun  until  the  arrival  of  some  lead- 
ing men  of  his  privy  council,  whom  he  promised  to  despatch 
at  the  earliest  moment,  with  the  view  of  satisfying  his  subjects 
of  the  Reformed  faith.3     Half  apologetically,  he  wrote  about 

1  Odet  de  la  Noue  to  Henry  IV.,  Loudun,  June  26,  1596,  MS.  belonging  to 
M.  Lesens,  printed  in  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de  Thistoire  du  Protestantisme 
franqais,  xxxii.  (1883)  401-404.  Another  letter  of  La  Noue,  of  August  16, 
1596,  printed  ibid.,  xxxii.  405-407,  from  the  MS.  in  the  Collection  Dupuy, 
National  Library,  Paris,  is  of  almost  equal  interest. 

2  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Henry  IV.,  Saumur,  May  11,  1596,  Memoires.  vi.  473. 

3  "Bref  discours,"  ubi  supra,  vii.  287,  288. 


1590.  THE  EDICT   OF  NANTES.  399 

the  same  time  to  Duplessis  Mornay  :  "  I  doubt  not  tliat  there 
is  a  great  deal  that  is  wrong  in  the  quarters  where  you  are,  see- 
ing that  here  there  is  so  much  that  I  do  not  know  what  remedy 
to  apply,  although,  believe  me,  I  spare  myself  in  no  wise  in  the 
quest." ' 

The  intimation  of  the  royal  intentions  reached  the  assembly 
before  it  had  broken  up — whether  in  obedience  to  the  king's 
previous  commands,  or  in  accordance  with  the  plan  of  carry- 
ing to  the  scattered  Huguenots  of  France  the  determination 
to  stand  by  the  terms  of  the  truce  of  Henry  the  Third.  The 
members,  we  are  told,  received  the  intelligence  with  great 
demonstrations  of  joy,  and  of  thankfulness  to  Almighty  God 
for  so  inclining  his  majesty's  heart  and  the  hearts  of  his  ad- 
visers.3 The  king's  deputies  soon  followed — Yic  and  Calignon, 
both  of  them  men  of  recognized  probity  and  skill.  But  now 
again  difficulties  at  once  arose  ;  the  powers  with  which  Yic  and 
Calignon  had  been  invested  were  too  limited  to  be  of  practical 
use,  resolving  themselves  into  little  more  than  offering  what 
had  been  so  often  rejected — the  Edict  of  Poitiers,  with  some 
insufficient  compensation  for  what  that  edict  had  lost  through 
the  successive  treaties  made  with  cities  and  chieftains  of  the 
League. 

The  end  was  not  yet.  However,  the  king  seemed  to  be 
thoroughly  in  earnest,  and  was  listening  to  better  advisers.  In- 
stead of  insisting  upon  the  dispersal  of  the  assembly,  lie  was 
anxious  not  only  to  have  it  continue  in  session,  but  to  bring  it 
nearer  to  the  capital ;  possibly  not  without  the  hope  that  the 
blandishments  of  the  court  might  make  some  impression  even 
upon  men  so  resolute.  The  delegates  accepted  the  proposal ; 
but  only  with  a  distinct  understanding  that  they  should  not  be 
invited,  as  before,  merely  to  be  again  dismissed  with  complaints 
scarcely  heard,  and  with  a  few  vague  notes  hurriedly  written  on 
the  margin  of  the  several  articles  of  their  carefully  prepared  pe- 


1  Henry  IV.  to  Duplessis  Mornay,  Abbeville,  June  2,  1596,  Memoires,  vi. 
488. 

2  "Bref  discours,"  ubi  supra,  vii.  288  ;  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste, 
etc.,  i.  300,  301. 


400      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cil  XIV. 

titions.1  On  the  tenth  of  November  the  Huguenots,  who  for 
seven  months  and  over  had  been  sitting  at  Loudun,  transported 
The  assembly  themselves  to  the  little  town  of  Vendome,  on  Henry's 
SL  patrimonial  estates.  A  little  later  they  thought  it 
saumur.  prudent  to  retire  to  safer  quarters  at  Saumur,  on  the 
Loire,  where  Duplessis  Mornay  was  governor. 

Meantime  the  king's  deputies  continued  to  come  and  go  be- 
tween the  Huguenot  assembly  and  the  court,  but  the  old  year 
closed  leaving  the  matters  in  dispute  as  unsettled  as  ever.  The 
first  three  months  of  the  year  1597  did  not  pass  before  the 
monarch  fancied  that,  in  the  fresh  complications  of  civil  affairs, 
he  had  additional  and  stronger  grounds  for  adjourning  to  a  more 
favorable  season  the  legislation  necessary  to  give  to  Protestant- 
ism a  standing  in  the  state,  and  to  its  adherents  some  measure 
of  security  for  life,  property,  and  religious  worship. 

As  if  previous  reverses  had  not  been  sufficient,  there  came  to 
the  court,  plunged,  at  the  time,  in  extraordinary  festivities  and 
Fan  of  Amiens,  gay  eties  and  masquerades,  the  startling  intelligence 
March  11, 1597!  tjiat  tne  c[ty  0f  Amiens,  key  to  the  situation  in  the 
north  of  the  kingdom,  had,  on  the  eleventh  of  March,  been 
surprised  and  taken  by  the  Spaniards.  The  sense  of  disgrace 
connected  with  its  capture  was  felt  even  more  than  the  possi- 
ble danger.  A  few  soldiers  disguised  as  peasants  had  effected 
one  of  those  daring  surprises  of  which  the  century  had  seen  so 
many.  A  loaded  wagon  breaking  down  at  the  gate  of  Amiens 
had  prevented  the  portcullis  from  falling  to  its  place.  The  score 
of  soldiers  had  facilitated  the  entrance  of  two  hundred,  the  two 
hundred  had  opened  the  way  for  the  whole  Spanish  army.  A 
city  boasting  the  possession  of  more  than  fifteen  thousand  bur- 
gesses capable  of  bearing  arms  was  taken  and  plundered,  its 
men  maltreated  and  its  women  outraged,  by  an  insignificant 
force  of  three  thousand  of  the  enemy.  The  blow  was  a  cruel 
one ;  Henry  felt  it  to  the  quick,  and  the  smart  reminded  him  of 
the  more  glorious  days  of  the  past,  when,  fighting  with  his  small 
following  of  Huguenot  soldiers,  he  had  been  a  match  for  all 

1  "Des  apostilles  faicts  a,  la  haste  sur  leurs  requestes."  "  Bref  discours," 
ubi  supra,  vii.  289. 


l.v.n 


THE  EDICT   OF  NANTES.  401 


the  armies  which  had  in  vain  been  hurled  against  him.  "  I 
have  been  long  enough  playing  the  King  of  France,"  he  ex- 
claimed.    "  Xow  I  must  play  the  King  of  Navarre."  ! 

How  should  the  Huguenots  act  in  this  emergency  ?  This 
was  the  question  that  instantly  confronted  them,  both  as  indi- 
viduals and  as  a  body  of  religionists  of  similar  views 
the  hS^  and  interests.  Denied  the  rights  for  which  they  had 
so  long  been  contending,  enjoying — under  a  king  until 
lately  professing  their  faith  and  certainly  elevated  to  the  throne 
more  by  their  valor  and  self-devotion  than  by  the  adhesion  of 
any  other  persons — less  freedom  of  action  than  they  had  pos- 
sessed under  monarchs  who  were  their  avowed  enemies,  baffled 
at  every  step  in  their  attempt  to  secure  justice  by  the  persist- 
ent unwillingness  of  a  royal  council  which  had  more  than 
once  frustrated  even  the  monarch's  own  kindly  disposition  and 
definite  concessions — must  they,  notwithstanding  all,  flock  to 
his  support,  not  only  forgetting  all  past  disappointments,  but 
renouncing  present  claims  ?  So  very  naturally  thought  Henry  ; 
so  thought  his  Roman  Catholic  courtiers,  one  and  all ;  so, 
deceived  by  the  glamour  of  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right 
of  kings,  and  of  the  unqualified  duty  of  passive  obedience  on 
the  part  of  subjects,  thought  even  the  fairest  men  of  the  op- 
posite party ;  so  thought  a  few  of  the  Huguenots  themselves. 
The  majority  were  of  a  different  mind,  and  the  more  just 
appreciation  of  the  rights  of  man  now  entertained  will  lead 
us  to  side  with  them.  The  Huguenots  were  willing,  and  more 
than  willing,  to  pour  out  their  life's  blood  for  the  defence  of 
king  and  country.  They  had  no  desire  to  take  advantage  of  the 
time  to  exact  conditions,  still  less  to  require  hard  or  unjust  con- 
ditions. But  they  must  know,  once  for  all,  where  they  stood, 
what  was  going  to  become  of  them.  If  they  were  to  suffer  and 
die  for  king  and  country,  they  must  at  least  be  certain  that  that 
king  and  that  country  were  theirs.     The  time  for  quibbling 


1  "  C'est  asses  faire  le  roy  de  France  ;  il  est  temps  de  faire  le  roy  de  Navarre." 
Lestoile,  ii.  282.  See  De  Thou,  ix.  79-81  ;  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  vi.  530- 
532  ;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  387,  388  ;  and  Motley,  United  Netherlands,  iii. 
435,  etc. 

Vol.  II.— 26 


402      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE   Ctt  XIV. 

and  shuffling  and  prevaricating  and  procrastinating,  if  there 
ever  was  a  time  for  such  unworthy  actions,  had  long  gone  by. 
The  government  must  give  a  categorical  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion :  "  Are  the  adherents  of  the  Reformed  Church  entitled  to 
equal  rights,  to  something  more  solid  than  mere  sufferance  at 
the  hands  of  Roman  Catholics?"  Xo  reply  but  "Yes"  or 
"No"  was  admissible.  If  they  were  Christians,  if  they  were 
Frenchmen,  if  they  had  proved  themselves  loyal  subjects,  let 
them  be  treated  as  such.  It  required  no  time,  no  slow  and  pain- 
ful deliberation,  for  king  and  council  to  decide  whether  they 
would  accord  the  Huguenots  their  inalienable  rights.1  It  was 
high  time  that  all  Frenchmen  should  learn  from  necessity  what, 
to  their  great  misfortune,  they  had  hitherto  failed  to  learn 
from  reason  and  from  experience — that  they  must  accustom 
themselves,  whatever  their  religious  opinions  might  be,  to  live 
harmoniously  together.2 

The  king  had  lost  no  time  in  notifying  the  Protestant  assem- 
bly of  Saumur  of  the  disaster  that  had  befallen  him,  and  in 
begging  them  to  postpone  their  demands  and  hasten  to  the 
sistance  of  their  sovereign  in  this  his  hour  of  need.  The  an- 
swer which  the  Huguenots  returned  to  the  royal  Bummone  is 
an  important  document,  exhibiting  clearly  the  principles  which, 
according  as  they  were  just  or  erroneous,  must  lead  us  to  admire 
or  reprehend  the  conduct  of  the  Protestants. 

"  Sire,"  the}T  said,  in  a  letter  dated  on  the  twenty-fifth  of 

March,    1597,  and  signed  by  Clermont,  as  president,  and  by 

Chamier,  as  secretary,  "we  have  received,  through 

The  assembly's  .  -,-»«-  -,  -,  •      ,  i  •   i     •    i  i  j 

answer  to  the  Monsieur  de  Montglat,  the  epistle  which  it  has  pic 

your  majesty  to  write  us.  From  this  we  learn  both 
of  the  loss  of  Amiens  and  of  the  displeasure  your  majesty  has 
experienced  thereat.  We  sympathize  in  your  grief,  as  true 
members  of  the  body  of  which  you  are  the   head,  being  unable 


1  The  extended  correspondence  of  Duplessis  Mornay  is  a  mine  of  informa- 
tion respecting  the  attitude  of  the  Huguenots.     It    should  be    read  entu 

far  as  these  years  are  concerned,  by  any  one  who  wishes  to  obtain  an  accurate 
idea  of  their  religious  principles  and  unflinching  patriotism. 

2  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Henry  IV. ,  Saumur,  March  25,  1597,  Meinoires,  vii. 
175.     See,  also,  the  letter  of  June  2,  1596,  ibid.,  vi.  490. 


1597.  THE   EDICT   OF   NANTES.  403 

to  see  you  afflicted  without  being  ourselves  afflicted.  It  is  just 
and  reasonable  that  all  should  unite  and  hasten  to  the  public  de- 
fence, and  we  hold  unworthy  of  the  French  name,  yea,  of  the 
Christian  name,  all  who  may  purpose  to  be  wanting  in  this  their 
bounden  duty.  As  such  we  declare  accursed  that  remnant  of 
rebels  and  disobedient  leaguers  who,  instead  of  upholding  the 
freedom  of  their  native  land,  traitorously  subject  it  to  the  yoke 
of  foreign  slavery. 

"  But,  Sire,  we  cannot  notice  that  your  majesty  exhorts  us  to 
this  union,  and  that  he  asks  us  to  divest  ourselves  of  prejudice, 
without  complaining  of  the  unfavorable  judgment  you  seem 
to  pass  upon  us.  For  we  are  charged  with  a  crime  of  which 
we  are  innocent — we  who  have  no  other  aim  but  to  live  to- 
gether as  true  Frenchmen,  bound  by  mutual  friendship  and 
concord ;  we  who  have  so  little  regard  for  our  personal  inter- 
ests that  we  have  no  life,  no  possessions,  but  such  as  we  are 
ready  to  use  for  the  public  weal,  as  we  have  ever  done.  To  ad- 
monish us  to  be  content  with  what  has  been  accorded  us,  is  a 
thing  not  less  strange  than  prejudicial  to  the  object  which  your 
majesty  desires  of  us.  It  is  strange,  because  you  formerly  bore 
us  such  good  will  that  it  is  almost  impossible  that  you  can  now 
desire  our  hurt.  It  is  prejudicial,  in  that  while  intending  to 
persuade  us  to  serve  you  against  your  enemies,  you  persuade  us 
at  the  same  time  to  render  ourselves  incapable  of  doing  you  ser- 
vice. We  cannot  do  service  to  your  majesty  unless  we  subsist. 
Now,  we  can  neither  be  nor  continue  to  subsist,  if  we  remain 
bound  to  the  hard  conditions  which  we  are  asked  to  accept. 
"VVe  shall  be  told  that  heretofore  we  have  subsisted  with  a  great 
deal  less.  That  is  true  ;  but  the  disease  is  now  at  its  crisis.  For, 
on  the  one  hand,  having  borne  as  large  a  share  as  we  were  able 
of  the  disasters  of  the  state,  and  sacrificed  all  our  interests  in 
order  to  aid  and  re-establish  it,  we  cherished  the  hope  that 
when  the  state  might  fare  better  we  also  should  enjoy  greater 
prosperity.  On  the  other  hand,  our  enemies  will  overwhelm 
us  without  delay,  unless  the  matters  needed  for  our  preserva- 
tion be  provided  for  by  your  majesty.  Therefore  it  is  that  we 
remain  firm,  Sire,  and  purpose  to  remain  firm,  with  no  intention 
of  keeping  men's  minds  in  suspense  by  our  fresh  demands. 


404     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE    Cu.  XIV. 

"Are  we  not  Christians,  Sire?  Why  do  men  wish  to  de- 
prive us  of  liberty  to  pray  to  God  ?  Shall  the  pope  suffer  the 
Jews  to  deny  our  Lord  in  the  city  of  Rome,  and  will  he  not 
suffer  us  to  adore  Him  publicly  in  France  ?  Tithes  have  from  all 
antiquity  been  instituted  for  the  support  of  the  pastors  of  the 
people ;  we  are  compelled  to  pay  tithes  to  our  mortal  enemies. 

"  There  are  two  things  which  prevent  us  from  now  giving 
up,  in  view  of  the  state  of  affairs,  the  demands  we  have  so  much 
reason  to  urge,  or  from  adjourning  them  to  another  season. 
The  one  is  that  they  are  so  absolutely  needful  to  us  that  we 
shall  perish  if  deprived  of  them  ;  the  other,  that  whatever  we 
might  defer  would  be  so  much  lost.     .     .     . 

"  Let  your  majesty  give  us  a  law  under  which  we  may  be 
able  to  live  with  honor,  and  we  will  boldly  answer  for  all  '  those 
of  the  religion  '  that  they  will  never  prove  recreant  to  the  loyalty 
and  obedience  they  owe  you,  that  they  will  never  have  anything 
more  at  heart  than  to  hasten  to  lay  down  their  lives  at  your 
majesty's  feet,  resisting  the  common  enemy  of  this  state.  This 
is  the  goal  of  our  aspirations,  for  whose  attainment  we  now 
have  greater  reason  to  hope,  since  it  has  pleased  your  majesty, 
for  the  purpose  of  enabling  us  to  secure  it,  to  appoint  members 
of  his  council  who  ardently  desire  the  prosperity  and  quiet  of 
the  realm.  We  very  humbly  beg  you  to  be  pleased  once  more 
to  command  them  to  surmount  all  difficulties  in  order  to  grant 
us  the  things  that  are  necessary.  Having  these,  we  protest 
that  we  shall  be  satisfied  ;  as  also  we  protest  that  we  shall  never 
consent  to  be  deprived  of  them,  lest  we  be  suicides,  authors  of 
our  own  ruin.  Against  that  ruin  we  entreat  your  majesty  to 
oppose  yourself,  in  conjunction  with  us,  as  courageously  and  as 
zealously  as  you  did  in  former  days."  ' 


1  The  full  text  of  the  letter  is  published  in  the  appendix  to  M.  Charles 
Read's  Daniel  Chamier  (Paris,  1858),  pp.  214,  215.  The  learned  author  of 
this  very  valuable  work  (the  first  president  of  the  French  Protestant  Histori- 
cal Society)  supposes  that  the  letter  was  the  production  of  Daniel  Chamier, 
who  signed  it  in  the  capacity  of  secretary.  I  think  that  this  is  a  mistake,  and 
that  here  again  we  have  a  paper  from  the  pen  of  Duplessis  Mornay.  The 
reference  made  by  the  writer  to  the  toleration  of  the  Jews  by  the  pope  in  the 
city  of  Rome  may  be  compared  with  the  sentences  respecting  the  ?aine  circuni- 


1597.  THE   EDICT  OF   NANTES.  405 

Meanwhile,  to  the  original  negotiators  on  the  part  of  the  king 
had  happily  been  added,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Protestants, 
schomber  *w0  men  °^  tried  fidelity  to  principle  and  of  marked 
and  De  Thou,  ability,  recently  commissioned  by  his  majesty  to  treat 
with  that  troublesome  rebel,  the  Duke  of  Mercosur.  With  the 
help  of  such  men  as  Schomberg,  Count  of  Nanteuil,  and  Jacques 
Auguste  de  Thou,  it  was  hoped  that  a  pacific  settlement  might 
soon  be  reached.  Nor  was  this  anticipation  disappointed. 
Under  their  patient  and  skilful  management  the  crude  outline 
of  a  contract  between  the  Roman  Catholics  and  the  Protes- 
tants was  gradually  fashioned  into  the  notable  edict  which,  for 
the  greater  part  of  a  century,  was  to  constitute  the  charter  of 
Huguenot  rights. 

Of  the  difficulties  that  stood  in  the  way  we  can  best  form 

a  notion  from  a  consideration  of  the  radical  differences  in  the 

positions   occupied  by  the  opposing   parties  on   the 

Difficulties  inr  .  ..r.  J  •  m       i       t>  r^      i 

the  way  of  question  or  religions  toleration,  lo  the  Koman  Cath- 
olic, the  existence  of  Protestantism  in  France  was  a 
fact  indeed,  but  a  fact  militating  against  the  unity  of  the  king- 
dom, a  misfortune  not  only  to  be  deplored,  but  to  be  cured  as 
speedily  as  possible.  "  Une  foi,  une  loi,  un  roi,"  was  still  a 
favorite  motto.  vTo  the  Huguenot,  Protestantism  in  France 
was  an  establishedfact,  a  permanent  condition  of  French  juris- 
prudence. 

The  Roman  Catholic  sought  to  relegate  the  Reformed  wor- 
ship to  distant  parts  of  the  country,  to  exclude  it  from  the 
cities,  to  compel  it  to  forego  all  external  marks  of  its  presence, 
to  prevent  its  convocations  from  meeting  the  eye,  the  singing  of 
its  psalms  from  offending  the  ear  of  the  faithful  masses  of  the 
people.  He  insisted  that  its  adherents  be  rigidly  banished  from 
all  offices  of  honor,  trust,  or  emolument,  that  its  ministers  receive 
no  official  recognition.  The  tithes  must,  as  heretofore,  be  re- 
served for  the  clergy  of  the  established  church.  If  the  adhe- 
rents of  the  Reformed  Church  must  have  ministers  of  their  own. 


stance  contained  in  a  "Remonstrance  to  the  States  of  Blois,"  drawn  up  by 
Duplessis  Mornay,  in  1576.  See  the  document  in  his  Memoires,  ii.  40-78, 
and  especially  pp.  49-51. 


406     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE    On.  XIV. 

let  them  pay  for  their  maintenance  ;  let  them  expect  no  relief 
from  bearing  a  proportionate  share  in  the  expense  of  supporting 
an  ecclesiastical  order  of  which  it  was  their  fault  or  their  mis- 
fortune that  they  did  not  reap  the  advantage. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Huguenot  claimed  an  equality  with 
the  Roman  Catholic  in  all  pertaining  to  citizenship — an  equal 
right  to  worship  God  according  to  his  own  convictions  of  duty 
and  proprietj7,  and  without  discrimination  of  time  and  place  ; 
equal  protection  of  person  and  goods  by  means  of  courts  im- 
partial because  constituted  of  a  bench  of  judges  equally  divided 
between  the  two  communions ;  equal  admission  to  all  offices  in 
the  civil  administration,  in  the  army,  in  the  judiciary  ;  equal 
participation  in  the  funds  for  the  support  of  the  ministry  to 
which  he  or  his  fathers  had  contributed  ;  finally,  since  it  was  vain, 
in  view  of  the  numerical  preponderance  of  the  Roman  Catholics, 
to  expect  that  even  the  monarch  himself,  however  equitably 
disposed,  would  be  able  to  defend  the  Protestant  minority  from 
oppression,  if  indeed  from  exposure  to  bloody  attack  and  mas- 
sacre, cities  of  refuge  to  be  left  in  Huguenot  hands,  but  with 
garrisons  paid  from  the  royal  treasury,  to  serve  both  as  a 
means  of  protection  and  as  a  pledge  of  future  peace. 

To  adjust  views  so  diametrically  opposed  would  have  been 
a  hopeless  task.  Happily  for  the  negotiators,  they  were  nut 
called  upon  to  make  an  entirely  new  settlement.  With  the 
Edict  of  Poitiers  and  the  conclusions  of  the  Conference  of 
Nerac  and  the  Peace  of  Fleix  as  the  basis,  they  had  but  to 
enlarge  the  concessions  of  Henry  the  Third  to  the  extent  at 
which  they  would  in  some  measure  satisfy  the  Protestant.-, 
wrhile  not  offending  the  Roman  Catholics  so  far  as  to  prevent 
them  from  accepting  the  results  of  their  work.  It  may,  indeed, 
be  urged  that  they  would  have  done  far  better  had  they  cast 
aside  the  trammels  of  the  Edict  of  1577  and  arranged  the  rela- 
tions of  the  Protestants  to  the  state  on  the  broad  foundation  ->t 
natural  law,  conceding  to  the  partisans  of  the  Reformation  all 
the  inalienable  prerogatives  of  man  as  a  rational  being  respon- 
sible to  God  alone  for  his  religious  belief.  But,  not  to  say  that 
Schomberg  and  De  Thou  were  intrusted  with  no  ample  powers 
to  enable  them  to  establish  the  principle  of  religious  equality. 


1597.  THE   EDICT   OF  NANTES.  407 

the  age  itself  was  unprepared  for  the  assertion  of  that  principle. 
Every  country  of  Europe  had  its  own  state  religion,  from  which 
if  dissent  was  tolerated  at  all,  the  toleration  carried  with  it  no 
acknowledged  claim  to  impartial  protection  and  support.  It 
was  a  marvel  to  contemporaries,  as  it  is  a  marvel  to  the  candid 
student  of  history  in  our  times,  that,  in  the  face  of  obstacles  so 
formidable,  the  ingenuity  of  Yic  and  Calignon,  of  Schomberg 
and  De  Thou,  on  the  side  of  the  court,  and  of  Duplessis  Mornay, 
of  Clairville,  and  of  others  scarcely  less  worthy  of  individual 
mention,  from  among  the  Huguenots,  was  successful  in  devising 
a  law  so  skilfully  and  so  justly  framed  in  all  its  parts  that, 
under  its  benign  provisions,  the  partisans  of  the  two  religions 
had  every  prospect  of  being  able  to  live  together  in  mutual 
amity  and  in  quietness  for  centuries,  if  not  for  all  time,  had 
not  the  fatal  resolution  been  formed  in  the  mind  of  Louis  the 
Fourteenth  to  secure  by  his  arbitrary  authority  the  complete 
religious  unity  of  the  kingdom. 

The  pressure  of  the  court  upon  the  assembled  deputies  at 
Saumur  to  make,  in  view  of  the  fall  of  Amiens  and  the  un- 
promising state  of  the  king's  affairs,  concessions  which  they 
were  expressly  forbidden  from  making  by  their  instructions, 
led  to  yet  another  change,  both  of  place  and  of  form,  in  the 
political  gathering.  With  the  monarch's  consent,  the  Hugue- 
nots took  a  brief  recess,  that  they  might  have  time  to  visit  their 
constituents  and  then  reassemble  in  the  city  of  Chatellerault,  on 
The  assembly  the  sixteenth  of  June,  with  larger  numbers  and  better 
raStfjune,  able  to  express  the  sentiments  of  the  masses  of  the 
Protestant  people.  It  was  a  goodly  company  that 
convened.  Each  province  was  represented  by  a  nobleman,  a  min- 
ister of  the  Gospel,  and  a  member  of  the  third  estate.  To  these 
members  were  added,  according  to  the  regulations  adopted  at 
Sainte  Foy,  several  high  lords  of  the  party,  among  whom  Claude 
de  la  Tremouille  exerted  the  greatest  influence  and  was  elected 
to  the  important  position  of  presiding  officer  of  the  assembly.1 

If  the  royal  council  and  Henry  himself  had  hoped  for  any 
abatement  of  the  Protestant  demands  from  the  delegates  fresh 

1  Benoist,  Histoire  de  ledit  de  Nantes,  i.  188,  189. 


408      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cji.  xrv. 

from  intercourse  with  the  Huguenots  of  the  provinces,  they 
were  utterly  disappointed.  Far  from  being  weaker,  their  tone 
it  abates  none  was  only  the  more  determined.  On  the  essential 
of  its  claims.    ^nt  Q£  tjie  Becurity  to  \ye  accorclecl  to  the  Protestau  te, 

almost  the  only  point  of  importance  where  substantial  agree- 
ment had  not  been  reached,  the  deputies  were  inflexible  in  de- 
fence of  the  rights  of  which  they  were  the  appointed  guardians. 
If  Duplessis  Mornay  had  previously  descried  peril,  he  now  real- 
ized howT  imminent  it  was.  Some  of  the  Huguenot  leaders  re- 
fused to  rally  to  the  king's  standard  until  his  majesty  should 
be  pleased  to  give  them  some  satisfaction.  La  Tremouille  him- 
self had  raised  troops  in  the  king's  name,  but  remained  in 
Poitou  and  would  not  hasten  northward  to  Picardy  ;  just  as 
the  Duke  of  Bouillon  from  Limousin  turned  his  arms  eastward 
into  Auvergne  and  Gevaudan  to  meet  the  insurrectionary  force 
of  Montmorency  Fosseuse,  instead  of  crossing  swords  with  the 
Spaniards.1  The  majority  of  the  members  of  the  assembly  of 
Chatellerault,  indeed  almost  all,  stood  in  the  same  attitude. 
They  insisted  that  the  little  account  which  the  king's  council 
made  of  the  importance  of  satisfying  the  demands  of  the  Prot- 
estants, even  as  to  necessary  things,  was  a  sufficient  reason  that 
the  Protestants  should  persist  in  their  demands  for  things  nut 
necessary — nay,  that  they  should  even  take  advantage  of  the 
public  affliction  of  the  kingdom,  inasmuch  as  their  enemies  pre- 
ferred to  refuse  their  just  demands  rather  than  avail  themselves 
of  the  services  of  the  Huguenots  by  granting  those  deman<; 

Nor  ought  severe  censure  to  be  directed  against  the  Hugue- 
nots, so  often  disappointed,  so  heart-sick  because  of  hope  long 
deferred,  if  they  exhibited  to  the  world  a  considerable  amount 
of  irritation.  They  were,  indeed,  on  the  eve  of  securing  an 
edict  by  whose  provisions  all  their  most  essential  wants  would 
be  met ;  but  they  were  gifted  with  no  supernatural  prescience, 
and  their  course  must  be  judged  not  by  what  we  now  know, 
but  by  what  they  knew.  And  they  only  knew  that  years  of 
earnest  discussion  and    humble  petition,    years  crowded  with 

1  Memoires  de  la  vie  de  J.  A.  de  Thou,  pp.  188,  189. 
'  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste,  etc. ,  i.  313.  314. 


1597.  THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  409 

fruitless  journeyings  to  and  from  court  and  with  repulses  from 
indifferent  or  hostile  councillors,  years  in  which  their  laborious- 
ly prepared  statements  of  grievances  and  exhibits  of  the  things 
they  must  have  in  order  to  maintain  a  bare  existence  had  re- 
ceived little  attention,  had  been  negligently  read,  and  had  called 
forth  for  all  reply  only  a  few  vague  assurances  hurriedly  dashed 
off  with  the  pen  and  amounting  in  truth  to  nothing  at  all — they 
only  knew  that  all  these  years  of  tedious  waiting  had  not  bet- 
tered their  actual  condition  in  the  slightest  degree. 

It  may  indeed  be  that  the  cool-headed  Duplessis  Mornay 
was  more  nearly  right  than  were  most  of  his  fellow-believers, 
when  he  urged  that  some  concessions  on  their  part  at  this  junct- 
ure would  insure  the  immediate  enactment  of  a  law  in  favor  of 
the  Protestants,  who  might  then  go  at  once  to  the  help  of  the 
king  before  the  walls  of  Amiens.  Such  a  law  would,  in  the 
present  emergency,  be  instantly  registered  by  the  Parliament  of 
Paris,  and  the  reproach  now  heaped  upon  the  Protestants  for 
their  tardiness  would  be  turned  into  congratulation  for  the  op- 
portune service  they  rendered.  On  the  other  hand,  if  Amiens 
should  be  permanently  lost  to  France,  the  Protestants  would 
share  in  the  disaster  experienced  by  the  whole  realm  ;  whereas, 
if  Amiens  should  be  retaken  by  Henry  without  their  partici- 
pation, in  the  exploit,  their  condition  would  only  become  the 
worse.  As  a  consequence  of  the  peace  between  him  and  Philip 
which  would  soon  ensue,  the  crown  would  be  more  redoubtable 
and  the  French  king's  Roman  Catholic  councillors  would  feel 
themselves  relieved  of  all  necessity  of  granting  Protestant  de- 
mands. 

This  moderate  and  prudent  advice,  however,  met  with  the  per- 
tinent rejoinder  that,  however  specious  the  arguments  might  be, 
experience  had  demonstrated  their  fallacy.  The  circumstance 
that  the  Huguenots  had  gone  to  the  rescue  of  Henry  of  Valois, 
in  his  extremity,  led  to  no  such  exhibition  of  gratitude  as  the 
advocates  of  concession  now  maintained  would  certainly  re- 
sult from  the  disinterested  subordination  of  their  needs  to 
the  exigencies  of  Henry  of  Bourbon.  In  the  end,  all  that 
Duplessis  Mornay  could  boast  to  have  effected  was  that,  by 
his  patriotic  and  ingenious  diplomacy,  he  forestalled  an  out- 


410     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XIV. 

break   which  might  have  been  the  prelude  of  another  disas- 
trous civil  war.1 

It  must  not,  however,  be  inferred  from  the  invectives  which 
it  became  the  fashion  among  Roman  Catholic  historians,  even 

of  the  fairer  kind,  to  pour  out  upon  the  heads  of  the 
support  in      Protestants,  for  their  supposed  lack  of  loyalty,  that 

Henry  found  himself  altogether  unsupported  by  Hu- 
guenot troops  or  captains  in  the  hour  of  his  extremity.  He 
was  still  surrounded  by  noblemen  and  officers  of  the  Reformed 
faith.  Some  of  his  best  troops  belonged  to  Protestant  families. 
Calvinists  constituted  almost  the  whole  of  the  regiment  of  Na- 
varre, which  was  among  the  corps  that  suffered  most  severely 
in  the  field.  The  lists  of  the  dead  and  of  the  wounded  were 
an  unimpeachable  testimony  to  the  extent  to  which  the  king's 
success  was  due  to  Protestant  co-operation.  Among  the  great 
nobles,  Rohan,  future  hero  of  the  last  Huguenot  struggles  un- 
der the  reign  of  Louis  the  Thirteenth,  signalized  himself  as  hav- 
ing made  his  first  experiment  of  war  in  the  campaign  for  the 
recovery  of  Amiens.2 

And  yet  the  general  fact  remained  that,  uncertain  both  of 
their  present  condition  and  of  their  future  prospects,  the  Hugue- 
nots exhibited  no  such  ardor  in  flocking  to  the  standard  of  their 
old  leader  as  they  had  shown  in  previous  contests,  and  that  his 
exhortations,  accompanied  by  no  acts  of  friendship,  remained  as 
powerless  to  stir  their  enthusiasm  as  his  covert  threats  of  injury 
were  impotent  to  excite  their  fears.3  They  were  fully  resolved 
not  to  be  drawn  by  cajolery,  not  to  be  driven  by  menaces,  into 
any  abandonment  of  their  rights.     They  even  took  steps  dis- 

1  Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste,  etc.,  i.  314,  315. 

2  Benoist,  ubi  supra,  i.  192. 

3  See,  for  example,  Henry's  letter  to  Schomberg,  dated  March  31,  150? — by 
no  means  one  of  his  most  manly  effusions — in  which  he  writes:  "Car  je  ne 
me  porte  pas  bien  de  ma  personne  et  suis  assailly  de  tant  de  necessitez  et  de 
faix  que  je  ne  scay  quasy  plus  a  quel  sainct  me  vouer,  pour  sortir  de  ce  mal- 
heureux  passage,  et  si  ceux  de  la  dicte  Religion  continuenta  demander  choses 
que  je  ne  leur  puisse  accorder  sans  diviser  mes  subjects  plus  que  devant,  ils 
augmenteront  tellement  ma  peine  et  ma  douleur,  que  je  m'asseure  qua  la  fin 
ilsy  auront  regret.  Car  ils  m'aecableront  d'ennuy  et  ui'osteront  tout  moyen 
de  remedier  au  mal  qui  nous  consomme."     Lettres  missives,  iv.  7*26. 


1597.  THE   EDICT  OF  NANTES.  411 

tinctly  looking  to  a  vindication  of  those  rights  by  arms.  Cer- 
tain cities  and  strongholds  left  in  their  hands  as  pledges  of  se- 
curity seemed  about  to  fall  into  their  enemies'  possession  through 
lack  of  means  to  pay  the  garrisons.  In  some  cases  the  appro- 
priation had  been  altogether  withheld.  Elsewhere  it  had  been 
in  great  part  diverted  into  other  channels,  and  the  financial 
officers  of  the  crown  had  received  orders  to  pay  to  the  Protes- 
tants no  more  than  would  suffice  to  meet  the  wages  of  the  soldiers 
for  the  first  four  months  of  the  year.  The  object  of  the  king's 
crafty  councillors  was  only  too  evident.  The  Huguenot  assem- 
bly, however,  forestalled  it  by  such  prompt  action  as  the  crisis 
demanded  ;  for  it  authorized  a  seizure  of  the  moneys  in  the 
hands  of  the  royal  collectors  of  taxes  sufficient  to  provide  for 
these  crying  needs.1 

Of  this  persistency  on  the  part  of  the  Protestants  there  was 
the  more  need,  because  of  the  disappointments  to  which  they 
were  again  subjected.  No  sooner  had  the  assembly  accepted  the 
propositions  which  Schomberg  declared  himself  empowered  by 
the  king  to  make,  than  De  Thou,  Vic,  and  Calignon  arrived  from 
court  with  later  instructions  and  essential  modifications  of  what 
Schomberg  had  conceded.  Convinced  that  they  were  trifled 
with,  the  Huguenot  delegates  could  scarcely  be  prevented  from 
at  once  returning  to  their  homes  in  disgust.  A  new  and  strange 
impatience  seized  them.  They  would  not  brook  delay.  If  they 
expected  a  messenger  from  the  king,  they  were  indignant  that 
he  tarried,  were  it  but  a  part  of  a  week.  "  Four  days  in  them- 
selves are  not  much,"  said  one ;  "  but  four  days  added  on  to 
upward  of  four  years  of  procrastination  drive  the  deputies  be- 
yond the  bounds  of  endurance."  2 


1  Letter  of  the  assembly  of  Chatellerault  to  Duplessis  Mornay,  November  22, 
1597,  in  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  vii.  396,  397.  After  rehearsing  the 
grounds  of  their  action,  the  assembly  proceeds  :  "Nous  avons  este  contraincts, 
a  la  requisition  des  gouverneurs,  d'ordonner  au  conseil  de  Poictou  de  faire 
payer  lesdictes  garnisons,  suivant  ce  qu'il  avoit  este  conveneu.  Et  nous  serons 
aussi  contraincts  de  faire  de  mesmes  ailleurs,  s'il  n'y  est  aultrement  pourveu  ; 
car  la  conservation  de  nos  places  nous  est  en  singuliere  recommendation.  Et 
c'est  aussi  lintentiou  du  roy  que  les  garnisons  soient  payees." 

2  Duplessis  Mornay  to  Schomberg,  August  11,  1597,  Memoires,  vii.  313. 


412      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIV. 

So  the  autumn  and  winter  of  this  eventful  year  wore  away. 

In  September  the  city  of  Amiens  again  fell  into  the  hands  of 

its  rightful  monarch.     The  prospect  of  an  earlv  ter- 

A.mi6ns  re- 

taken.   Sep-    mination  of  the  war  with  Spain  was  bright.     Henry's 

tember   1597.  * 

mind  could  now  be  relieved  of  the  fear  that  in  mak- 
ing concessions  he  might  seem  to  have  been  constrained.  None 
the  less  was  he  determined  that  the  Protestants,  whom  he  ac- 
cused of  a  desire  to  dictate  terms  to  him,  should  appear  to  have 
accepted  only  what  he  was  pleased  to  grant.1  He  insisted  that 
the  assembly  of  Chatellerault  should  send  deputies  of  its  own 
to  court,  there  to  lay  before  him  what  difficulties  might  still 
remain,  and  receive  his  ultimate  decision.  It  was  with  this 
commission,  appointed  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  February,  1598, 
and  consisting  of  four  Protestant  members,  and  with  the  Duke 
of  Bouillon,  whom  the  assembly  requested  to  assist  them,  that 
the  final  arrangements  were  made  which  were  promulgated,  two 
months  later,  in  the  Edict  of  Xantes.2  The  commission,  like 
the  assembly  of  which  it  was  an  emanation,  stood  its  ground 
firmly.  The  four  Huguenots  were  shrewd  negotiators,  who, 
much  to  the  disgust  of  those  with  whom  they  treated,  would 
not  abate  a  jot  of  their  demands.  Yet  wise  men  among  the 
Roman  Catholics  were  fully  convinced  that  even  thus — if  only 
the  Protestants  would  act  prudently  and  make  due  acknowledg- 
ments to  the  king  for  his  goodness — the  court  had  made  an  ex- 
cellent bargain  for  France.3 

In  reality,  however,  France  owes  a  deeper  debt  of  gratitude 
for  the  great  charter  of  Huguenot  liberties,  which  was  about  to 
be  conceded,  to  the  political  assembly  of  the  Huguenots  which 


1  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  460,  461 ;  Memoires  de  De  Thou,  188. 

3  See  Anquez,  78,  79. 

3Villeroy,  Secretary  of  State,  wrote  to  Bellievre  and  Sillery,  who  were 
treating  with  Philip  II. 's  ambassadors  at  Vervins,  March  7,  1598  :  "L'assem- 
blee  de  Chastelleranlt  a  aussi  envoye  quatre  deputes  pour  conclure  et  achever 
du  tout  les  affaires  qui  les  concernent,  si  bien  que  j'estime  que  nous  en  pour- 
rons  sortir  a,  Angers  oil  nous  allons  aujourd'hui  ;  mais  vous  scavts  a,  quel  prix 
ce  sera,  car  ils  n'ont  rien  rabatteu  de  leur  compte ;  et  pourveu  qu'ils  soient 
sages  etqu'ils  recognoissent  couime  ils  doibvent  la  bonte  de  samajeste,  encores 
n'en  serons  nous  que  bons  marchands/' 


159a  THE  EDICT  OF   NANTES.  413 

closed  its  eventful  sessions  on  the  eleventh  of  June,  about  two 

months  after  the  date  of  the  royal  signature,  than  to  Henry 

the  Fourth  himself.1     It  is  true  that  the  king  must 

Honor  due  to  .        .    .  .  ,       ,  .  „ 

the  Huguenot  be  credited  with  an  honest  desire  that  the  I  rotestants 
of  France  should  obtain  such  a  standing  in  the  sight 
of  the  law  as  would  enable  them  to  live  in  peace  and  com- 
fort. He  was  doubtless  sincere  in  the  declaration  that  he 
would  deeply  regret  any  disturbance  of  amicable  relations  with 
old  associates  in  creed  and  in  arms,  whom  he  averred  that  he 
loved  even  more  than  they  loved  themselves."  Nor  is  it  un- 
likely that,  in  the  course  of  the  many  years  during  which  he 
had  been  forced  to  contemplate  the  subject,  first  as  a  subject 
and  a  Protestant,  later  as  a  professed  Roman  Catholic  and  a 
monarch,  Henry  had  matured  a  scheme  according  to  which  the 
adherents  of  the  two  prevalent  religions  might  live  together  in 
France  with  mutual  forbearance  and  toleration.  But,  whatever 
that  scheme  may  have  been,  it  is  equally  undeniable  that  the  plan 
.actually  adopted  and  incorporated  in  the  famous  edict,  so  far 
as  it  differed  from  the  methods  of  previous  edicts  and  was  not 
&  mere  indorsement  of  their  provisions,  emanated  not  from  the 
sovereign,  but  from  the  resolute  band  of  men  who,  month  af- 
ter month  and  year  after  year,  stood  together  without  flinch- 
ing, without  for  a  moment  harboring  the  thought  of  the  sur- 
render of  a  single  one  of  the  interests  for  whose  defence  they 
had  been  convened.  The  brilliant  king,  with  his  sparkling  wit 
and  his  affable  manners,  may  make  a  more  conspicuous  figure 
upon  the  stage  of  history ;  but  the  quiet  and  tireless  assembly 
which  sat  at  Loudun,  at  Vendome,  at  Saumur,  at  Chatellerault, 
and  would  have  gone  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  if  only  it  might 
secure  the  rights  of  its  constituents,  is  better  entitled  to  the 
rank  of  protagonist,  since  it  was  the  true  author  of  the  system 


1  This  is  also  the  view  of  Leonce  Anquez  (Histoire  des  assemblies  politiques 
4es  Reformes  de  France,  79),  a  Roman  Catholic  historian  of  extraordinary 
fairness  and  impartiality. 

'2  "  Ceulx  que  je  puis  dire  aimer  plus  qu'ils  ne  s'aiment  eulx  mesmes.' 
Autograph  letter  of  Henry  IV.  to  Duplessis  Mornay,  Monceaux,  January  18, 
1598,  Memoires,  vii.  522,  and  Lettres  missives,  iv.  898. 


414     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cn.  XIV. 

under  whose  successful  operation  the  kingdom  enjoyed  for  long 
years  a  peace  founded  upon  justice  and  equity. 

It  was  in  the  month  of  March  and  in  the  city  of  Angers  that 
Henry  signed  the  edict  by  which  he  took  into  his  favor  that  last 
and  most  treacherous  of  the  adherents  of  the  League,  the  Duke 
of  Mercosur.1  Then  proceeding  down  the  Loire,  to  receive 
the  submission  of  the  province  in  which  the  duke  had  for 
nine  years  maintained  himself  with  almost  regal  authority,  his 
majesty  reached  the  capital  of  Brittany,  the  commercial  city  of 
Xantes,  on  the  eleventh  of  April,  1598.  Two  days  later  he 
signed  the  edict  which  has  come  to  be  known  as  the 

The  Edict  of     —  ^  _  T  T  . 

Nantes  signed,  Ldict  or  JNantes.     It  was  a  remarkable  circumstance, 

April  13,  1598.  ..  .  ,  .  ,  . 

noticed  even  at  the  time  as  a  singular  coincidence, 
that  the  great  law  establishing  the  civil  rights  of  the  Huguenots 
was  issued  at  the  very  place  where,  thirty-eight  years  earlier,  on 
the  first  of  February,  1560,  in  the  reign  of  Francis  the  Second, 
and  in  the  midst  of  the  most  violent  persecution,  the  first  as- 
sembly of  the  malcontents,  soon  to  be  known  as  Huguenots,  was 
brought  together  by  the  incredible  diligence  of  Godefroy  de  la 
Reynaudie.2  By  one  of  the  strange  revenges  of  history,  the 
same  Breton  port  that  witnessed  the  stealthy  convocation  of  a 
few  patriots  resolved  to  attempt  against  great  odds  the  over- 
throw of  a  tyrannical  usurpation  of  power,  was  destined  to  be- 
hold the  promulgation  of  one  of  the  most  illustrious  of  laws 
ever  enacted  in  behalf  of  religious  liberty,  given  in  answer  to 
the  petition  of  the  successors  of  those  patriots  who  had  now  be- 
come an  important  element  of  the  French  population.3 


1  This  document  brings  to  a  close  the  long  series  of  humiliating  concessions 
to  the  rebels  of  the  League  contained  in  the  "Recueil  des  edicts  et  articles 
accordez  par  le  roy  Henry  III  pour  la  reunion  de  ses  subjects.  Imprime  Tan 
de  Grace,  MDCIIII."  See,  also,  Memoires  de  laLigue,  vi.  625-640.  Arrange- 
ments were  contemporaneously  made  for  the  marriage  of  Henry1 8  bastard  son 
Cresar  to  the  duke's  only  daughter,  a  girl  of  only  six  years.     De  Thou,  ix    168. 

2  Rise  of  the  Huguenots,  i.  380. 

3  De  Thou,  ix.  155.  It  seems  strange,  at  first  sight,  that  this  historian 
should  make  the  interval  between  1500  and  1598  amount  to  thirty-nine  years  ; 
but  the  error  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that,  occurring  before  Easter,  the 
date  of  the  famous  meeting  at  Nantes,  which  preceded  the  "  Tumult  of  Am- 
boise,"  fell  within  the  bounds  of  the  year  1559  old  style. 


1598.  THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  415 

The  Edict  of  Nantes  is  a  long  and  somewhat  complicated 
document.  Besides  the  edict  proper,  contained  in  ninety-five 
public  articles,  there  is  a  further  series  of  fifty-six  "  secret "  ar- 
ticles, and  a  "  brevet "  or  patent  of  the  king,  all  of  which  were 
signed  on  the  thirteenth  of  April ;  and  these  documents  are  sup- 
plemented by  a  second  set  of  twenty-three  "  secret "  articles, 
dated  on  the  last  day  of  the  same  month.  The  first  of  these 
four  papers  is  expressly  declared  to  be  a  "  perpetual  and  irrev- 
ocable edict.*'  It  is  this  portion  of  the  law  that  specially  de- 
mands a  careful  examination. 

The  preamble  begins  with  a  statement  of  the  "  frightful  troub- 
les, confusions,  and  disorders  "  to  which  Henry,  at  his  accession, 
found  France  a  prey,  and  the  complete  success  which  had  at 
length  attended  his  labors,  put  forth  even  at  the  risk  of  his 
own  life,  to  restore  peace  and  quiet  to  the  kingdom.  Among 
the  matters  which  he  has  been  obliged  to  postpone  until  this 
moment,  and  chief  among  these  matters,  are,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  complaints  which  he  has  received  from  many  cities  and 
provinces  that  the  Catholic  religion  has  not  been  universally  re- 
established, according  to  the  edicts  heretofore  given  for  the 
pacification  of  the  realm ;  and,  on  the  other,  the  petitions  and 
remonstrances  of  his  subjects  of  the  "  pretended  Reformed  re- 
ligion," both  touching  the  fact  that  what  has  been  conceded  to 
them  by  those  edicts  remains  unexecuted,  and  respecting  the 
additional  provisions  which  they  desire  for  the  exercise  of  their 
religion,  the  liberty  of  their  consciences,  and  the  security  of 
their  persons  and  fortunes,  in  view  of  their  just  apprehensions 
caused  by  the  recent  troubles  of  which  the  chief  object  has 
been  their  overthrow.  "  But  now,"  writes  the  king,  "  that  it 
hath  pleased  God  to  begin  to  grant  us  the  enjoyment  of  some 
better  quiet,  we  have  judged  that  we  cannot  better  employ  that 
quiet  than  by  attending  to  what  may  concern  the  glory  of  His 
holy  name  and  service,  and  providing  that  He  may  be  worshipped 
and  adored  by  all  our  subjects ;  and  if  it  hath  not  pleased 
Him  to  permit  that  this  be  done  as  yet  in  one  and  the  same 
form  of  religion,  that  it  be,  at  least,  with  one  and  the  same  in- 
tention, and  with  such  order  that  there  be  not,  for  that  reason, 
any  trouble  and  tumult  amongst  them,  and  that  we  and  this 


416     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIV. 

kingdom  may  always  merit  and  retain  the  glorious  title  of  '  Very 
Christian,'  a  title  which  was  acquired  long  since  by  many  meri- 
torious actions,  and  by  the  same  means  remove  the  cause  of  the 
disaster  and  trouble  that  may  arise  on  the  question  of  religion, 
which  is  always  the  most  delicate  and  far-reaching  of  all  ques- 
tions. Recognizing,  therefore,  this  matter  to  be  of  very  great 
importance,  and  worthy  of  very  careful  consideration,  having 
taken  up  the  memorials  of  the  complaints  of  our  Catholic  sub- 
jects, having  also  permitted  our  subjects  of  the  pretended  Re- 
formed religion  to  assemble  by  deputies  to  draw  up  their  com- 
plaints, and  to  collect  all  the  aforesaid  remonstrances,  and  hav- 
ing conferred  with  them  divers  times  respecting  this  question, 
and  having  reviewed  the  preceding  decrees,  we  judge  it  neces- 
sary now  to  give  respecting  the  whole  matter,  to  all  our  said 
subjects  a  general,  clear,  definite,  and  absolute  law,  by  which 
they  may  regulate  their  conduct  as  to  all  the  differences  which 
have  heretofore  arisen  among  them  or  may  hereafter  arise — 
a  law  wherewith  both  may  have  reason  to  be  satisfied,  as  far 
as  the  nature  of  the  times  may  permit."  In  thus  acting,  the 
monarch  declares  further  that  he  is  moved  simply  by  zeal  to 
the  service  of  God,  and  by  a  desire  that  a  lasting  peace  may 
reign  among  his  subjects.  lie  prays  that  the  same  divine  good- 
ness which  has  ever  watched  over  France  may  give  grace  to  all 
Frenchmen  to  comprehend  well  that  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
law  now  given  consists,  next  to  their  duty  to  the  Almighty  and 
to  their  king,  the  principal  foundation  of  their  union  and  con- 
cord, tranquillity  and  quiet,  and  of  the  re-establishment  of  the 
entire  state  in  its  pristine  splendor,  opulence,  and  power.  The 
king  on  his  part  promises  to  enforce  the  exact  observance  of  the 
edict,  which  has  been  drawn  up  after  mature  deliberation  and 
consultation  of  the  princes  of  the  blood  and  the  great  officers 
and  dignitaries  of  the  state. 

Our  chief  concern  being  with  the  fortunes  of  the  Huguenot?, 
the  provisions  for  the  re-establishment  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Libert  of  worship,  wherever  in  the  course  of  the  events  of  the 
conscience.  ]ast  thirty  years  that  worship  had  been  interfered 
with  or  banished,  need  not  claim  our  attention.  For  the  bene- 
fit of  the  Protestants  the  cardinal  concession  was  liberty  to  dwell 


1598.  THE  EDICT   OF   NANTES.  417 

anywhere  in  the  royal  dominions,  without  being  subjected  to 
inquiry,  vexed,  molested,  or  constrained  to  do  anything  con- 
trary to  their  conscience.  As  respects  public  worship,  while 
perfect  equality  was  not  established,  the  dispositions  were  such 
Ren-  ous  as  to  bring  it  within  the  power  of  a  Protestant  in  any 
worship.  p.irt  0£  the  kingdom  to  meet  his  fellow-believers  for 
the  holiest  of  acts,  at  least  from  time  to  time.  To  every  Prot- 
estant nobleman  enjoying  that  extensive  authority  known  as 
"haute  justice,'' and  to  noblemen  in  Normandy  distinguished 
as  possessors  of  "  fiefs  de  haubert,"  the  permission  was  granted 
to  have  religious  services  on  all  occasions  and  for  all  comers  at 
their  principal  residence,  as  well  as  on  other  lands  whenever 
they  themselves  were  present.  Noblemen  of  inferior  jurisdic- 
tion were  allowed  to  have  worship  on  their  estates,  but  only  for 
themselves  and  their  families.  In  addition  to  these  seigniorial 
rights,  the  Protestant  people  received  considerable  accessions  to 
the  cities  where  they  might  meet  for  public  religious  purposes. 
The  exercise  of  their  worship  was  authorized  in  all  cities  and 
places  where  such  worship  had  been  held  on  several  occasions 
in  the  years  1596  and  1597,  up  to  the  month  of  August ;  and 
in  all  places  in  which  worship  had  been,  or  ought  to  have  been, 
established  in  accordance  with  the  Edict  of  1577,  as  interpreted 
by  the  Conference  of  Nerac  and  the  Peace  of  Fleix.  But  in 
addition  to  these,  a  fresh  gift  of  a  second  city  in  every  baili- 
wick and  senechaussee  of  the  kingdom  greatly  increased  the  fa- 
cilities enjoyed  by  the  scattered  Huguenots  for  reaching  the 
assemblies  of  their  fellow-believers. 

In  the  matter  of  education  and  of  public  charity,  the  provi- 
sions of  the  edict  were  large  enough  to  satisfy  the  natural  aspira- 
Education  tions  of  the  Protestants  both  to  afford  their  children 
and  charity.  anc|  their  needy  members  all  the  advantages  enjoyed 
by  the  rest  of  the  community,  and  to  give  that  religious  cult- 
ure upon  which  the  reformers  had  always  laid  great  stress. 
Scholars  of  both  religions  were  to  be  admitted  without  distinc- 
tion of  religion  to  all  universities,  colleges,  and  schools  through- 
out France.  The  same  impartiality  was  to  extend  to  the  recep- 
tion of  the  sick  in  the  hospitals,  and  to  the  poor  in  the  provision 

made  for  their  relief.     More  than  this,  the  Protestants  were 
Vol.  II. —27 


418     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIV. 

permitted  to  establish  schools  of  their  own  in  all  places  where 
their  worship  was  authorized,  and  the  grants  already  made  by 
Henry  the  Fourth  for  the  erection  of  Protestant  universities 
at  La  Rochelle,  Nismes,  and  Montelimart  were  duly  confirmed. 
The  right  of  Protestants  to  endow  scholastic  or  eleemosynary 
institutions  by  testamentary  bequests,  and  the  right  of  Protes- 
tant fathers  to  prescribe,  during  their  lifetime  or  by  will  after 
their  death,  the  teachers  of  their  children,  were  fully  recog- 
nized. 

The  scandal  and  inhumanity  exhibited  in  the  refusal  of  bur- 
ial to  the  Protestant  dead,  as  well  as  in  the  disinterment  of 
such  bodies  as  had  been  placed  in  consecrated  ground, 
was  henceforth  precluded  by  the  assignment  of  por- 
tions of  the  public  cemeteries  or  of  new  cemeteries  of  their  own 
to  the  Protestants. 

The  civil  equality  of  the  Protestants  was  assured  by  an  arti- 
cle which  declared  them  to  be  admissible  to  all  public  posi- 
tions, dignities,  offices,  and  charges,  and  forbade  any 

Civil  equality.  °       .  .  ,  .,      ,         °    ...       ^  -, 

other  examination  into  their  qualifications,  conduct. 
and  morals  than  those  to  which  their  Roman  Catholic  brethren 
were  subjected. 

Recognizing  the  disadvantages  under  which  the  Protestants 
suffered  in  the  ordinary  courts  of  justice,  and  their  inability  to 
courts  of  us-  0Dtam  an  impartial  hearing  and  an  equitable  decision 
tice.  from  the  majority  of  Roman  Catholic    judges,  the 

Edict  of  Nantes  developed  still  further  the  exceptional  legis- 
lation instituted  by  previous  edicts  of  pacification.  Provision 
was  made  for  the  establishment  of  a  "  chamber  of  the  edict," 
as  it  was  styled,1  in  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  with  six  Protes- 
tants among  its  sixteen  counsellors,  to  take  cognizance  of  c 
in  which  Protestants  were  concerned.  A  similar  chamber  was 
promised  in  each  of  the  parliaments  of  Rouen  and  Rennes.     In 


1  "Laquelle  sera  appellee  et  intitulee  la  chanibre  de  l'edit,"  The  Edict  of 
Nantes  as  registered  by  parliament,  however,  provided  for  but  one  Protestant 
among  the  sixteen  counsellors  of  the  Chamber  of  the  Edict.  The  other  five 
Protestants  were  distributed  among  the  five  chumbres  des  enqueUsx  that  they 
might  be  of  little  or  no  account. 


1598.  THE  EDICT   OF  NANTES.  -119 

Southern  France  three  "chambres  mi-parties"  were  either  con- 
tinued or  created,  with  an  equal  number  of  Roman  Catholic 
and  Protestant  judges — the  first  at  Castres,  for  the  province  of 
Languedoc ;  the  second  at  Bordeaux  or  Nerac,  as  should  there- 
after  be  determined,  for  Guyenne ;  and  the  third  at  Gap,  for 
Dauphiny.  These  chambers  were  regarded  as  belonging  re- 
spectively to  the  parliaments  of  Toulouse,  or  Languedoc,  of 
Bordeaux,  or  Guyenne,  and  of  Grenoble,  or  Dauphiny. 

The  two  most  delicate  matters,  in  view  of  the  relation  of  the 
Protestants  to  the  crown,  yet  remain  to  be  mentioned.  The 
first,  which  was  the  support  of  the  Protestant  ministers  of  the 
Gospel,  was  provided  for  in  the  "brevet"  or  patent  bearing  even 
date  with  the  edict  itself.  In  this  document  his  maj- 
Protestant  esty,  while  careful  to  avoid  the  slightest  reference  to  a 
theme  distasteful  to  his  Roman  Catholic  subjects,  de- 
clares his  desire  to  help  his  Protestant  subjects  "to  meet  sun- 
dry great  expenses  which  they  have  to  sustain,"  and  thereupon 
appropriates  to  their  use  from  the  royal  treasury  the  sum  of 
forty -five  thousand  crowns  annually,  to  be  employed  "  in  certain 
secret  affairs  that  concern  them,  which  his  majesty  does  not 
wish  to  be  specified  or  declared."  Not  less  thorny  was  the  set- 
tlement of  the  matter  of  the  cautionary  cities  still  held  by  the 
Protestants  in  various  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  of  the  pay- 
ment of  the  wages  of  the  garrisons  defending  them. 

Ofthegarri-      _.   .  .  &  ,        .  i  i  . 

sons  of  places  lhis  settlement  was  made  in  the  second  series  or 
secret  articles  already  referred  to,  whereby  the  Prot- 
estants were  formally  authorized  to  retain  possession  of  these 
places  for  the  term  of  eight  years  from  the  date  of  the  publica- 
tion of  the  edict,  and  the  annual  sum  of  one  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  crowns  was  set  apart  to  defray  the  expense  of  their 
maintenance.1 


1  The  Edict  of  Nantes  has  frequently  been  printed  with  more  or  less  exact- 
ness and  completeness.  Professor  Anquez  has  printed,  I  believe  for  the  first 
time,  the  four  documents  constituting  the  entire  settlement  in  their  original 
form.  Benoist,  in  the  appendix  to  the  first  volume  of  his  Histoire  de  leditde 
Nantes,  and  Weiss,  in  the  appendix  to  his  Histoire  des  refugies  protestants, 
have  given  them  in  the  form  in  which  they  were  registered  by  the  Parliament 
of  Paris.     The  "  Recueil  concernant  les  religionnaires  (Edicts,  declarations  et 


420      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIV. 

Such  are  the  main  features  of  a  law  whose  enactment  marks 

an   important  epoch  in  the  history  of  jurisprudence.     If  the 

supreme  aim  of  the  state  should  be  the  prosperity  of 

An  epoch  in  A  .,  #  xl  d 

modern  civiii-  every  citizen  under  the  kindly  sway  of  laws  extend- 

zation.  J  .  J  J 

ing  their  protection  indifferently  to  the  adherents  of 
every  religious  creed,  and  securing  to  all  an  equal  measure  of 
quiet  and  safety,  then  the  Edict  of  Xantes  deserves  to  rank 
among  the  grandest  monuments  of  European  civilization  ;  then 
were  the  assiduous  and  persevering  sessions  of  the  Assembly  of 
Loudun,  Saumur,  and  Clmtellerault,  the  toil  of  De  Thou  and 
Schomberg  and  Duplessis  Mornay,  and  the  solicitude  of  Henry 
the  Fourth  himself  not  labor  lost.  Of  persecution  tierce  and 
bloody  the  world  had  seen  quite  enough,  among  Christians  as 
well  as  among  Moslems  and  pagans.  Of  toleration  dictated  by 
political  necessity  there  had  been  not  a  little,  as  well  as  of  a 
species  of  contemptuous  toleration  such  as  that  which  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  Arabian  prophet  extended  with  supreme  disdain 
to  "  dogs  of  unbelievers,"  whose  persons  they  loathed  and 
whose  conflicting  tenets  they  despised.  But  of  religious  liber- 
ty, based  upon  any  notion,  even  approximate,  of  equality,  there 
had  been  a  great  dearth ;  and  it  was  precisely  this  doctrine  of 
complete  religious  liberty  which  was  enunciated  in  the  Edict  of 
Nantes  with  a  precision  remarkable  for  the  time  of  its  publica- 
tion. True,  a  candid  examination  will  not  justify  us  in  denying 
the  assertion  that  the  great  achievement  of  Henry  the  Fourth's 
reign  was  of  the  character  of  a  compromise  between  natural 
justice  and  social  necessity  ; '  but  it  is  to  the  glory  of  its  authors 
that  the  concessions  were  mostly  in  the  interests  of  the  inde- 
feasible rights  of  man. 

The  Edict  of  Nantes  was  not  at  once  presented  to  the  parlia- 
ments ;  nor  was  it,  indeed,  until  early  in  the  following  year  that 
the  Parliament  of  Paris  formally  entered  the  document  upon 


arrests,  etc.)  "—reprint  of  1885— gives  only  the  edict  proper  and  the  first  set 
of  secret  articles.  The  "Inventaire  general  de  l'histoire  de  France  "  (Geneva. 
1G13)  contains  the  edict  proper  alone,  without  the  preamble. 

1  "  Cette  transaction  derniere  entre  la  justice  naturelle  et  la  necessite  sociale." 
Essai  sur  Thistoire  du  tiers-etat.  par  Augustin  Thierry  (Paris,  1853),  i.  183. 


1598.  THE   EDICT   OF  NANTES.  421 

its  registers.  The  cause  of  this  delay  was  the  desire  felt  by  the 
royal  council  that  the  papal  legate,  Alexander  de'  Medici,  Cardi- 
nal of  Ferrara,  should  have  the  opportunity  of  leaving  the  king- 
dom before  the  occurrence  of  an  event  which  the  estimable  prel- 
ate— for  truly  estimable  is  he  represented  as  having  been — 
might  have  regarded  as  a  personal  affront.1 

Meanwhile,  on  the  second  of  May,  1598,  the  war  between 

France  and  Spain  had  been  happily  brought  to  an  end  by  a 

treatv  of  peace  signed  at  Vervins,  and  a  month  later 

The  Peace  of  ^       .      ■*;  5?  .     . 

vervins.  May,  the  capital  and  all  -b  ranee  rejoiced  over  the  solemn 
ratification  of  the  conditions  which  restored  quietness 
to  a  land  long  a  prey  to  the  devastations  of  the  sword.2  The 
only  drawback  to  the  universal  satisfaction  lay  in  the  fact  that 
England  and  the  Netherlands,  faithful  allies  of  France,  had  not 
been  included  in  the  compact,  and  that  Henry  had  broken  his 
explicit  engagement  to  make  no  arrangements  with  Philip  in 
which  Queen  Elizabeth  was  not  included.  By  no  class  of 
Frenchmen  was  this  more  regretted  than  by  the  Huguenots, 
who  had  lately  recurred  to  the  queen  and  to  Prince  Maurice  of 
Orange,  and  had  enjoyed  the  great  advantage  of  their  interces- 
sions with  Henry.  However,  as  the  virgin  queen  was  pretty 
well  used  to  be  treated  after  this  fashion  by  her  continental  asso- 
ciates, and  as  the  King  of  France,  while  plighting  his  word  that 
he  would  henceforth  be  a  firm  friend  of  Philip,  had  secretly  as- 

1  De  Thou,  ix.  155.  "  Je  ne  desire  le  retour  du  legat  a  Rome,"  wrote 
Henry  IV.  to  the  Duke  of  Luxemburg,  "sinon  pours'esclaircir  et  consoler  aux 
occasions  qui  se  presentent  a  nostre  commun  bien  et  contentement,  et  je  fais 
retarder  la  publication  de  l'Edict  avec  les  Huguenots  a  cause  de  sa  presence." 
Letter  of  August  17,  1598,  Lettres  missives,  v.  15,  16,  and  Bulletin,  ii.  30. 

-  On  the  treaty  of  Vervins,  see  the  text  of  the  articles  in  Memoires  de  Du- 
plessis  Mornay,  viii.  431-450  ;  on  the  public  rejoicings,  "  Les  pompes  et  cere- 
monies faites  a  l'acte  solemnel,  auquel  le  roy  jura  publiquement  la  paix,  en 
la  presence  des  deputez  d'Espagne,  1598 "  (reprinted  in  Memoires  de  la 
Ligue,  vi.  680-686).  The  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay  contain  a  great  num- 
ber of  letters,  etc.,  respecting  the  negotiation  of  this  peace.  In  a  letter 
written  on  the  day  the  treaty  was  signed,  Bellievre  and  Sillery  notify  Villeroy, 
French  minister  of  state,  that  "my  lord  the  legate  has  told  us  that  the  pope 
will  derive  so  great  satisfaction  from  this  peace,  that  he  esteems  that  should 
the  king  apply  to  him  for  one  additional  cardinal,  the  pope  will  gratify  him 
with  one."     Memoires,  viii.  429. 


422      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIV. 

sured  the  Dutch  that  he  would  give  them,  underhand,  such  aid 
as  would  prevent  them  from  being  overwhelmed  by  the  Span- 
iard, the  breach  of  faith  produced  less  astonishment  or  com- 
motion than  might  have  been  expected. 

And  now  had  Henry  the  Fourth  the  opportunity  of  demon- 
strating to  the  world  whether  the  edict  in  favor  of  the  Protes- 
The  Edict  of  tants  was  in  truth  a  law  extorted  from  him  by  force. 
Sorted  by  as  the  apologists  for  its  revocation  by  his  grandson 
force.  averred,  making  use  of  this  statement  to  prove  the 

justice  of  repealing  privileges  iniquitously  secured.  The  ques- 
tion is  not,  indeed,  of  any  great  ethical  importance.  The  Great 
Charter  granted  by  Henry  of  Bourbon  to  his  Huguenot  subjects, 
like  that  other  charter  granted  by  John  Lackland  to  his  British 
barons,  must  stand  upon  its  own  intrinsic  merits,  and  the  only 
point  of  real  moment  in  the  eye  of  impartial  history  is,  whether 
its  provisions  coincide  with  the  dictates  of  natural  equity,  whether 
the  document  as  a  whole  is  an  approximate  and  somewhat  faith- 
ful exponent  of  the  relations  which  the  state  ought  to  recognize 
as  subsisting  between  different  forms  of  religion  enjoying  the 
joint  protection  of  the  civil  power. 

The  charter  in  which  free  England  glories,  even  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  was  secured  at  Runnymede,  nearly  seven  hun- 
dred years  ago,  by  armed  men  encamped  in  menacing  attitude 
over  against  their  monarch.  If  the  Huguenot  noblemen  and  bur- 
gesses had,  in  a  similar  manner,  compelled  the  King  of  France, 
at  the  point  of  the  lance,  to  concede  to  them  an  edict  incorp 
ing  the  principles  of  religious  liberty  more  perfectly  than  had 
been  done  in  any  previous  enactment,  the  fact  would  not  have  di- 
minished in  the  least  our  legitimate  admiration  of  the  document, 
nor  afforded  even  a  plausible  pretext  for  its  subsequent  recall. 

In  point  of  fact,  however,  there  are  few  historical  truths  mure 
distinctly  established  than  that,  while  Henry  had  been  dilatory 
in  granting  the  privileges  demanded  by  the  Huguenots,  his  de- 
lays had  been  due  to  no  aversion  to  them  or  unwillingness  to 
reward  their  patriotic  and  loyal  services,  but  solely  to  the  oppo- 
sition, actual  or  apprehended,  of  his  council.  He  might  regard 
as  ill-timed  the  persistence  of  the  Huguenots  ;  he  might  not 
agree  with  them  in  each  of  the  points  deemed  by  them  essential 


1598.  THE   EDICT   OF   NANTES.  423 

to  their  security;  he  might  even,  on  occasion, indulge  in  a  little 
petulant  remonstrance ;  but  never  did  he  seriously  contemplate 
a  settlement  very  different  from  that  at  which  the  deputies  finally 
arrived,  and  no  one  in  the  kingdom,  perhaps,  was  better  pleased 
when  that  settlement  was  actually  reached.  Four  months  after 
signing  the  edict,  Henry  justified  his  action  to  the  Duke  of 
Luxemburg  by  pointing  to  the  necessity  of  satisfying  a  great 
and  powerful  part  of  his  subjects,  but  did  not  fail  to  emphasize 
especially  the  debt  of  gratitude  he  owed  the  Huguenots.  "  I 
have  been  too  well  served  and  helped  by  them  in  my  need,"  said 
he,  "  to  neglect  their  interests ;  and  were  I  to  neglect  them,  I 
should  introduce  into  my  kingdom  troubles  more  dangerous 
than  those  of  the  past."  ' 

But  the  king's  zeal  for  his  edict  did  not  stop  with  private 

utterances.     There  were  obstacles  from  many  different  quarters 

to  be  overcome.      The  clergy,  the  parliaments,  the 

Opposition  of  ,  .  .  _ .  „       _  r  t  nr*       -i  -x-r 

the  clergy  and  university  raised  up  difficulty  after  difficulty.     .Noth- 

the  university.   .  -,  -,    .      i  i  •  n 

ing  was  too  absurd  to  be  used  as  an  instrument  or  re- 
sistance. All  the  faculties  of  the  University  of  Paris  mani- 
fested their  hatred  of  the  Protestants,  and  refused  to  admit 
them  either  to  the  benches  of  the  students  or  to  chairs  of  in- 
struction. Such  enmity  was  natural  enough  when  it  came  from 
the  Theological  Faculty,  or  Sorbonne ;  but  it  was  scarcely  to  be 
expected  that  the  Medical  Faculty  should  distinguish  itself  by 
its  greater  rancor  and  more  determined  opposition.  Again  the 
pulpits  resounded  in  denunciation  of  the  new  compact  to  the 
advantage  of  heresy,  and  several  bishops  went  so  far  as  to  order 
public  prayers  to  be  said  throughout  their  dioceses  imploring 
Almighty  God  that  the  edict  might  not  become  the  law  of  the 
land.  In  fact,  amid  the  excitement  of  the  prelates  the  great 
moderation  of  the  papal  nuncio,  who  remained  after  the  legate's 


]  Henry's  words  are  significant:  "Je  ne  puis  reculer  les  Huguenots  des 
charges  sans  hazarder  le  repos  de  mon  Estat ;  car  la  partie  de  ceux  de  contraire 
religion  est  encore  trop  enracime  en  iceluy,  et  trop  forte  et  puissante  dedans 
et  dehors  pour  estre  mise  a,  nonchaloir.  J'en  ay  este  trop  bien  servy  et  assiste 
en  ma  n^cessite ;  je  remettrois  des  troubles  en  mon  Royaulme  plus  dangereux 
que  par  le  passe."  Henry  IV.  to  the  Duke  of  Luxemburg,  August  17,  1598, 
Lettres  missives,  v.  15,  and  Bulletin,  ii.  30. 


424     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch.  XIV. 

departure,  was  remarked  as  not  less  singular  than  creditable  to 
his  good  sense  and  charity.1 

With  all  these  opponents  Henry  displayed  his  accustomed 
tact  and  discernment.     If  any  preacher  was  particularly  vehe- 
ment, he  summoned  him   and  administered  a  severe 
dress  to  the     reprimand.     To  the  deputies  of  the  clergy  he  gave 

clergy. 

an  answer  cleverly  combining  conciliation  with  firm- 
ness. The  prelates  might  even  interpret  his  words  as  implying 
that  he  intended  by  and  by  to  bring  about  religious  uniformity. 
"  During  the  war,"  he  said,  "  I  used  to  run  to  the  quarter  where 
the  fire  burned  most  fiercely,  to  put  it  out ;  now  that  peace  lias 
come  back,  I  shall  do  what  I  ought  to  do  in  time  of  peace.  I 
know  that  Religion  and  Justice  are  the  columns  and  support  of 
this  kingdom,  which  is  preserved  by  righteousness  and  piety ; 
and  were  they  not,  I  should  wish  to  establish  them,  but  step 
by  step,  as  I  shall  do  in  all  things.  I  shall  act  in  such  wise,  God 
helping  me,  that  the  church  will  be  as  well  off  as  she  was  a 
hundred  years  ago.  I  hope  to  clear  my  conscience  on  this 
point,  and  to  satisfy  you.  This  will  be  done  little  by  little. 
Paris  was  not  built  in  a  day.  Bring  it  to  pass  by  your  good 
examples  that  the  people  be  as  strongly  incited  to  right  action  aa 
they  have  heretofore  been  deterred  from  it.  You  have  exhorted 
me  to  do  my  duty  ;  I  exhort  you  to  do  yours.  Let  us  both  act 
aright.  Go  by  one  way  and  let  me  go  by  the  other,  and  if  we 
meet,  the  thing  will  be  quickly  done.  My  predecessors  have 
given  you  words  with  much  pomp;  and  I,  in  my  gray  jacket. 
will  give  you  results.  I  wear  but  a  gray  jacket.  I  am  gray  on 
the  outside,  but  all  gilt  within." a 

But  it  was  upon  the  Parliament  of  Paris  in  particular  that 


1  Benoist,  Histoire  de  l'edit  de  Nantes,  i.  271-273  ;  Lestoile.  ii.  200. 

2  "  Je  n'ay  qu'une  jaquette  grise;  je  suis  gris  par  le  dehors,  mais  tout  dore 
ail  dedans."  Reponse  de  Henri  IV  aux  deputes  du  clerge,  28  Septembre, 
1598,  MSS.  Du  Puy,  National  Library,  printed  in  Bulletin  de  la  Sooiete  de 
l'histoire  du  Prot.  francais,  ii.  28,  and  Lettres  missives,  v.  83,  34.  Two  months 
later  La  Noue  writes  :  "  Quant  a  nostra  edict,  le  roy  opiniastre  pour  nous  le 
faire  verifier,  et  a  sur  ce  poinct  vaincu  les  ecclesiastiques  de  haute  lutte.  et 
les  a  fort  menaces  et  gourmandes."  La  Noue  to  Duplessis  Mornay,  November 
28,  1598,  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  ix.  188. 


1598.  THE   EDICT  OF  NANTES.  4:25 

Henry  found  it  necessary  to  exert  the  most  direct  and  steady 
pressure.  On  a  few  points,  indeed,  he  was  willing  to  introduce 
modifications  in  the  edict.  He  thought  it  not  unreasonable 
that  the  Protestants  should  be  required  to  obtain  the  royal  per- 
mission to  hold  their  synods  and  other  ecclesiastical 

Modifications     ,,.  ,,  ,  111111  ^    r  i 

made  in  a  few  bodies,  and  that  they  should  be  debarred  from  them- 
selves sitting  in  synods  held  outside  of  the  kingdom 
or  from  receiving  foreign  Protestants  into  their  own  synods. 
And,  indeed,  the  Duke  of  Sully  and  others  of  the  same  religion 
regarded  it  as  for  the  advantage  of  the  Huguenots  that  a  privi- 
lege should  be  denied  them  which  would  have  exposed  them  to 
the  charge  of  foreign  intrigue.1  But,  while  accepting  such  sug- 
gestions, the  king  insisted  upon  the  reception  and  registry  of 
the  edict  without  essential  change.  The  delay  of  the  judges  to 
comply  with  his  wishes  led  him  at  last  to  summon  the  presi- 
dents and  chief  members  of  the  court  before  him,  and  to  address 
to  them  a  speech  of  more  than  ordinary  historical  importance. 

The  judges  found  Henry  in  his  cabinet,  where  he  had  been 

telling  Marshal  la  Chastre  that  famous  story  of  a  marvel  which 

happened  iust  after  the  massacre  of  Saint  Bartholo- 

The  king's  de-  J 

termined        mew's  Day — how  that,  when  playing  at  dice  with  the  k . 

speech  to  the  ■ 

Parliament  of  late  Duke  of  Guise  and  two  others,  he  had  seen  drops 

Paris 

of  blood  appear  upon  the  table  ;  that  twice  he  had 

wiped  them  off,  but  that  when  they  came  to  light  for  a  third 

time  he  had  declined  to  continue  the  game,  with  the  exclamation 

that  the  augury  was  a  bad  one  for  those  who  had  spilled  blood. 

Not  without  a  purpose  did  the  king  preface  his  remarks  to 


1  Memoires  de  Sully,  cli.  89  (ed.  of  1663,  ii.  241,  etc.)  ;  Inventaire  general, 
ii.  771  ;  Benoist,  i.  274.  It  is  to  be  noted,  and  the  circumstance  is  character- 
istic of  the  diplomacy  of  the  times,  that  while  Henry  added  to  the  34th  of 
the  secret  articles,  respecting  the  holding  of  synods,  etc.,  the  words  "par 
la  permission  de  sa  majeste,"  and  subsequently  denied  the  request  of  the 
Protestants  to  strike  the  clause  out,  he  agreed  to  give  them  special  letters 
patent,  "  according  to  which  they  shall  be  able,  notwithstanding  the  aforesaid 
article,  to  use,  in  respect  to  the  holding  of  consistories,  colloquies,  synods,  etc., 
the  same  forms  and  liberties  as  heretofore."  See  Anquez,  191.  Other  con- 
cessions to  the  parliament  related  to  the  "Chamber  of  the  Edict,1'  at  Paris, 
and  the  promise  of  Henry  to  appoint  no  Protestants  to  judicial  offices  in  the 
provinces.     De  Thou,  ix.  279. 


426      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cu.   XIV. 

the  judges  by  repeating  the  story  to  them.  Then  turning  to 
the  object  of  the  interview,  he  told  them  that  he  met  them, 
not  like  his  predecessors,  in  royal  habit  or  with  sword  and 
cape,  but  dressed  in  a  simple  doublet,  like  a  father  speaking 
familiarly  to  his  children.  He  wished  to  beg  them  to  verify 
the  edict  he  had  given  to  "  those  of  the  religion."  It  was  for 
the  good  of  peace,  which  he  had  made  without  the  kingdom, 
and  now  wished  to  establish  within  it.  He  reminded  them  of 
their  obligations  to  him  for  their  very  possessions.  If  obedi- 
ence was  due  to  his  predecessors,  much  more  was  it  due  to  him, 
for  he  had  re-established  the  state.  He  knew  of  the  intrigues 
set  on  foot  in  parliament,  at  the  instigation  of  factious  preachers ; 
but  lie  would  himself  deal  with  these  men,  and  would  not  wait 
for  the  action  of  the  judges.  It  was  the  same  path  that  had 
been  taken  leading  to  the  Barricades,  and  by  degrees  to  the  as- 
sassination of  the  late  king.  lie  would  cut  the  root  of  all  that, 
and  put  an  end  to  seditious  preaching  and  to  those  who  pro 
moted  it.  "  I  have  leaped  the  walls  of  cities,"  said  he  ;  "  I  shall 
have  no  trouble  in  vaulting  over  the  barricades.''  He  declared 
that,  as  to  the  Catholic  religion,  he  was  a  better  Catholic  than 
they  were,  and  the  eldest  son  of  the  church,  which  none  of 
them  could  ever  be.  As  to  influence  with  the  pope,  lie  assured 
them  he  had  more  of  it  than  they  had,  and  that  he  could,  at 
pleasure,  have  them  all  declared  heretics,  should  they  refuse 
to  obey  him.  Kay,  he  added  jocosely,  not  a  thing  they  eonld 
say  or  do  escaped  him,  for  he  had  a  familiar  spirit  which  re- 
vealed all  to  him.  Those  who  desired  that  his  edict  should 
not  pass  wished  him  to  have  a  war  upon  his  hands.  Very 
well,  he  would  declare  it  to-morrow  against  the  Protestants, 
but  he  had  not  any  intention  of  wa^in^  it  himself.  No  :  he 
would  leave  that  to  his  hearers,  the  judges  of  parliament,  who 
should  go  to  it  marching  in  their  gowns,  and  would  resemble 
that  famous  procession  of  the  Capuchin  monks  in  the  time  of 
the  siege  of  Paris,  when  each  of  them  carried  a  musket  over 
liis  monastic  dress.     A  fine  sight  would  they  present !  ' 

1  "  Ceux  qui  ne  desirent  que  mon  edict  passe  me  veulent  la  guerre  ;  je 
clarerav  demain  a  ceulx  de  la  Religion,  mais  je  ne  la  leur  feray  pas  ;  vous  iros 


1599.  THE   EDICT  OF  NANTES.  427 

He  had  formerly  played  the  soldier  ;  there  had  been  mur- 
murs, and  he  had  not  seemed  to  hear.  Now  he  was  king,  and 
spoke  as  a  king  ;  he  was  resolved  to  be  obeyed.  The  judiciary 
\\  as  indeed  his  right  arm  ;  but  when  the  gangrene  attacked  the 
right  arm,  the  left  arm  must  cut  it  off.  When  one  of  his  regi- 
ments did  not  serve  him,  he  broke  it  up;  should  parliament  fail 
to  verify  the  edict,  it  would  gain  nothing — the  edict  would  pass 
nevertheless.  He  referred  to  the  action  of  other  parliaments, 
and  declared  that  their  failure  to  execute  his  commands  had 
been  the  occasion  of  new  requests  on  the  part  of  the  Protes- 
tants ;  he  did  not  want  the  refusal  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris, 
on  the  present  occasion,  to  lead  to  fresh  demands.  He  spoke 
with  contempt  of  the  men  who  were  now  so  loud  in  their 
professions  of  devotion  to  the  church  and  to  Catholicism.  Let 
him  but  give  to  this  man  a  benefice  worth  two  thousand  crowns, 
to  that  man  an  income  of  four  thousand  livres,  their  lips  would 
instantly  be  sealed.  He  reminded  them  that  the  Edict  of 
Nantes  was  in  reality  the  edict  of  Henry  the  Third  given  in 
15TT.  It  was  also  his  own,  for  Henry  the  Third  had  made  it 
with  him.1  Now  that  he  confirmed  it,  lie  did  not  approve  of 
intending  to  do  one  thing  and  writing  another.  If  others  had 
done  so,  he  would  not  follow  their  example.  Deceit  is  hate- 
ful everywhere,  but  especially  hateful  in  princes,  whose  word 
ought  to  be  immutable.  "  Concede  to  my  prayers,"  said  Henry, 
in  conclusion,  "  what  you  would  not  like  to  have  conceded  to 
my  threats ;  you  will  have  none  from  me.  Do,  I  beg  you,  as 
speedily  as  possible  what  I  command  you.  You  will  do  this 
not  only  for  me,  but  also  for  yourselves,  and  in  the  interests  of 
peace." 2 

tous,  avec  vos  robes,  et  ressembleres  la  procession  des  Capucins,  qui  portoient 
le  mousquet  sur  leurs  habits.     II  vous  feroit  beau  voir." 

1  "  Consider es  que  l'edict  dont  je  vous  parle  c'est  l'edict  du  feu  Roy.  II  est 
aussy  le  mien,  car  il  a  este  faict  avec  inoy." 

2  The  words  of  Henry  are  given  with  very  slight  variations  in  a  MS.  of  the 
National  Library,  under  the  heading  "  Les  paroles  que  le  roy  a  teneues  a  Mes- 
sieurs de  la  Cour  de  Parlement  le  vii  fevrier  1599  "  (printed  in  Bulletin  de  la 
Societe  de  l'histoire  du  Protestantisme  fran^ais,  ii.  128-131),  and  in  the  In- 
ventaire  general  de  l'histoire  de  France,  ii.  774-776.  See,  also,  De  Thou,  ix. 
276-279;  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  461. 


428     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XIV 

These  were  not  the  words  of  one  who  was  constrained,  of  a 
prince  from  whom  an  obnoxious  law  was  wrung  by  fears  or  by 
threats.  They  were  the  earnest  expostulations  of  a  king  who 
heartily  approved  the  edict  the  registration  of  which  he  urged, 
recognizing  in  it  the  only  basis  of  lasting  peace  between  hie 
subjects  of  differing  creeds.  And  it  is  particularly  deserving 
of  notice  that,  overlooking  minor  differences,  he  regarded  it  m 
essentially  the  same  edict  with  that  of  Poitiers,  signed  by  Henry 
the  Third  in  September,  1577 ;  an  edict  which,  therefore,  Henry 
of  Bourbon,  then  leader  of  the  Huguenots,  had  himself  sought 
for,  and  which  he  so  highly  approved  that,  to  use  the  words  of 
the  contemporary  historian,  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  he  had  adopted 
it  as  his  own,  styling  the  peace  his  peace,  and  displaying  great 
zeal  in  its  observance.1 

It  was  useless  to  make  further  resistance.  On  the  twenty  - 
fifth  of  February,  1599,  the  Edict  of  Xantes  was  formally 
The  edict  verified  by  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  and  was  ac- 
F7biSuearryd25  cepted  as  the  law  of  the  land.  On  the  seventeenth 
1599.  0£  jyfaj-ch  Henry  took  steps  for  its  complete  execu- 

tion throughout  France,  by  the  appointment  of  commissioners 
— a  nobleman  and  a  magistrate  from  each  province — to  attend 
to  the  work.2 

Not  far  from  a  year  had  been  spent  in  the  consideration  of  the 
edict  by  the  public  ;  many  weeks  had  the  edict  been  under  the 
minute  examination  of  the  highest  judicature.  But  the  time 
had  not  been  lost.  The  very  modifications  that  had  been  made  in 
the  original  document,  much  as  the  Huguenots  might  deplore 
them,  strengthened  the  law.  The  delay,  the  changes,  whether 
for  the  better  or  for  the  worse,  made  it  henceforth  impossible 
for  any  one  to  allege,  with  even  a  show  of  truth,  that  the  Edict 
of  Nantes  had  been  passed  otherwise  than  after  mature  delib- 
eration and  with  full  knowledge  of  the  case.  From  this  time 
forward  the  settlement  by  Henry  the  Fourth  would  hold  the 


1  "Le  roi  de  Navarre  avoit  fait  son  propre  du  traitte,  et  nomine  cette  paix 
sienne,  se  passionnant  a  l'observation."  Histoire  universelle,  ii.  328  (bis.,  iii., 
ch.  23).     See  above,  vol.  i.,  ch.  ii  ,  p.  167. 

2  De  Thou,  ix.  284. 


1599.  THE  EDICT  OF  NANTES.  429 

place  of  a  just  and  necessary  law,  and  could  not  honestly  be 
mistaken  for  a  violent  compromise  framed  to  put  an  end  to  a 
state  trouble.1 

To  judicious  men  on  all  sides  the  Edict  of  Nantes  appeared 
a  measure  as  opportune  as  it  was  just.     By  none  was  it  wel- 
comed with  greater  satisfaction  than  by  those  candid  and  rea- 
sonable Roman  Catholics  who,  free  from  jealousy  of 
by  an  reason-   the  inestimable   boon  of  religious  liberty  which  the 

able  men.  .  n  -  ,ir»  ^  irn 

new  law  confirmed  to  the  Protestants,  thoughtfully 
considered  the  immense  advantages  it  conferred  upon  the  ad- 
herents of  the  other  creed.  In  La  Rochelle  and  in  more  than  a 
hundred  other  walled  towns  and  cities,  and  in  a  thousand  par- 
ish churches  or  monasteries,  scattered  through  the  provinces  of 
Poitou,  Angoumois,  Saintonge,  Aunis,  Dauphiny,  Languedoc, 
and  Provence,  the  celebration  of  the  mass  was  restored,  after 
having  been  intermitted  for  a  period  of  about  fifteen  years.2 
"  Thus  is  it,"  observes  a  historian  writing  a  few  years  later, 
"  that  both  Roman  Catholics  and  Protestants,  living  henceforth 
under  the  favor  and  blessing  of  the  Edict,  confess  that  they  owe 
an  undying  obligation  to  his  majesty  for  having,  with  such  ad- 
mirable wisdom  and  constancy,  removed  the  cause  of  civil  divis- 
ions resulting  from  difference  of  religion."  3 

Accordingly  the  Edict  of  Nantes  was,  in  the  course  of  time, 
accepted,  not  as  a  temporary  expedient,  similar  to  any  one  of  the 
The  Edict  of  preceding  pacificatory  ordinances,  not  as  a  law  which 
fundamental  e^ner  the  reigning  monarch  himself  or  his  succes- 
iaw.  sors  mjght  alter  or  repeal  at  will,  but  as  a  funda- 

mental law  of  the  state,  which,  being  the  result  of  the  mature 
deliberation  and  consent  of  all  orders  of  the  kingdom,  could  be 

1  This  is  the  weighty  verdict  of  Duplessis  Mornay  in  his  important  commu- 
nication of  March  9,  1599,  to  the  new  political  assembly  which,  with  the 
king's  approval,  had  succeeded  the  old  assembly  at  Chatellerault.  (See  Anquez, 
172.)  "On  ne  pourra  dire  desormais  que  cest  edict  n'ait  passe  avec  meure 
deliberation,  et  grande  cognoissance  de  cause,  pour  tenir,  d'ici  en  avant, 
lieu  de  loi  juste  et  necessaire,  et  non  plus  de  transaction  violente  pour 
terminer  ung  trouble  d'estat."     Memoires,  ix.  247. 

2  Cayet,  Chronologie  septenaire,  48.  The  Inventaire  general,  ii.  808,  in- 
creases these  figures  to  over  250  walled  towns  and  2,000  parishes  and  monas- 
teries. 3  Inventaire  general,  ubi  supra. 


430      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch  XIV. 

abrogated  only  by  the  united  action  of  all  the  parties  concerned. 
This  was  not  a  view  likely  to  commend  itself  to  the  approval  of 
the  courtiers  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  or  of  any  who  held  the 
slavish  doctrine  of  the  omnipotence  of  kings ;  but  it  was  the 
view  of  the  liberty-loving  Huguenots,  and,  doubtless,  of  the  ma- 
jority of  fair-minded  men  of  whatever  religious  creed.  The 
doctrine  was  distinctly  propounded  by  the  great  orator  and 
preacher,  Jean  Claude,  when  the  "  Grand  Monarque  "  undertook 
to  overthrow  the  great  work  of  his  sire.  "  It  was  not,"  he  said, 
"the  sole  authority  of  Henry  the  Great  that  established  the 
Edict.  We  have  seen  that  the  Edict  is  a  decree  of  his  jus- 
tice rendered  after  both  sides  had  been  heard ;  we  have  seen 
that  it  is  an  agreement,  and,  as  it  were,  a  compromise  made 
between  the  Catholics  and  the  Reformed,  authorized  by  the 
public  faith  of  the  entire  state,  sealed  with  the  seal  of  the  oath, 
and  ratified  by  the  execution.  Now  this  is  what  renders  the 
Edict  inviolable,  and  places  it  beyond  the  reach  of  Henry's 
successors.  In  this  respect  they  can  only  be  the  guardians 
and  executors,  and  not  the  masters  on  whose  good  pleasure  it 
l  ^j  depends.  Henry  the  Great  never  employed  the  force  of  arms 
9*  to  compel  the  Roman  Catholics  to  consent  to  it,  and,  although 
since  his  death  the  states  general  were  held,  under  the  minority 
of  Louis  the  Thirteenth  the  Edict  remained  in  force.  It  is 
therefore,  as  we  have  said,  a  fundamental  law  of  the  kingdom, 
.'twhich  the  kings  cannot  touch.  But  even  were  it  a  result  of 
'  the  sole  authority  of  Henry,  which  is  evidently  false,  it  would 
not  follow  that  the  king  at  present  reigning  could  revoke  it. 
Why  ?  Because  there  are  many  things  that  depend  upon  one's 
good  pleasure  to  do,  but  not  upon  one's  good  pleasure  to  undo  ; 
and  of  this  nature  is  the  Edict.  It  is  a  royal  promise  which 
Henry  the  Great  made  to  the  Reformed  of  his  kingdom,  as 
well  for  himself  as  for  his  successors  forever,  and  consequently 
it  is  a  condition,  or,  if  you  will,  an  encumbrance,  which  he  has 
laid  upon  his  inheritance,  and  from  which  his  heirs  are  no  longer 
at  liberty  to  divest  themselves." ' 

1  Jean  Claude,  Les  Plaintes  des  Protestans  cruellement  opprimez  dans  le 
Royaume  de  France,  145-147. 


1599.  THE   EDICT   OF   NANTES.  431 

It  is  of  interest  to  note  how  the  edict  that  gave  such  satis- 
faction to  all  the  best  men  of  both  religions  throughout  France, 
the  edict  that  was  to  render  it  possible  for  Huguenots 

Displeasure  of  /->      i      -i  •  i  •  i 

pope  element  and  Koman  Catholics  to  live  in  peace  and  amity,  as 
citizens  of  the  same  commonwealth,  regardful  of  one 
another's  rights  while  mindful  each  of  his  own,  was  received  at 
Rome. 

On  Saturday,  the  twenty-seventh  of  March,  1599,  soon  after 
the  news  of  the  registration  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  by  the  Par- 
liament of  Paris  reached  the  Eternal  City,  Clement  the  Eighth 
summoned  the  French  envoys  to  an  audience,  of  which  Cardinal 
d'Ossat  has  left  us  a  lengthy  and  precise  report. 

"  I  am  the  most  grieved  and  disconsolate  person  in  the 
world,"  said  the  pope,  "  because  of  the  edict  which  the  King  of 
France  has  made  in  favor  of  the  heretics,  and  to  the  prejudice 
of  the  Catholic  religion.  This  edict  has  at  last  passed  and  has 
been  published,  contrary  to  the  hope  I  had  always  entertained 
since  it  was  spoken  of.  I  had  always  believed  that  the  king 
made  it  merely  to  satisfy  the  Huguenots  in  appearance,  and  that 
he  would  have  been  very  glad  to  have  the  clergy  oppose  it  and 
parliament  refuse  to  pass  it  in  order  to  use  this  excuse  subse- 
quently with  the  Huguenots.  Now  I  see  quite  the  opposite  of 
what  I  had  expected  of  the  king.  First,  I  see  an  edict  the  most 
accursed  that  can  be  imagined,  whereby  liberty  of  conscience  is 
granted  to  every  one,  which  is  the  worst  thing  in  the  world.1  In 
addition  to  this,  the  worship  of  that  damnable  sect  is  permitted 
throughout  the  whole  kingdom  ;  the  heretics  are  introduced  into 
the  courts  of  parliament,  and  admitted  to  all  charges,  honors,  and 
dignities,  so  that  they  will  henceforth  oppose  everything  that 
may  turn  to  the  advantage  of  the  Catholic  religion,  and  will  pro- 
mote and  further  heresy.  Moreover,  I  see  that  the  king  has 
made  this  edict  at  a  time  when  he  is  at  peace  both  within  and 


1  "  Premierement,  il  voioit  un  Edit  le  plus  maudit  qui  se  pouvoit  imaginer 
(ce  sont  ses  mots,  que  nous  vous  reciterons  ici,  et  tout  le  long  de  cete  letre, 
sansy  rien  meler  du  notre),  par  lequel  Edit  etoit  permise  liberty  de  conscience 
a  tout  chacun,  qui  etoit  la  pire  chose  du  monde."  Cardinal  d'Ossat  to  Henry 
IV.,  Rome,  March  28,  1599,  Lettres,  ii.  44. 


432       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ctt  XIV. 

without  his  realm  ;  so  that  it  cannot  be  said  that  he  has  been 
forced  to  make  it.  When  the  other  kings  made  similar  edicts,  it 
was  clearly  seen  that  they  were  compelled  to  do  so,  because  there 
were  armies  of  heretics  in  the  field  and  open  war.  Besides,  the 
other  kings  were  Catholics,  and  were  grievously  offended  by  the 
heretics ;  so  that  they  could  not  be  suspected  of  having  any 
inclination  toward  those  people,  whatever  they  might  be  seen 
doing.  In  the  third  place,  I  take  it  as  a  very  evil  augury,  and 
it  grieves  me  extremely,  that  his  majesty  has  exhibited  such 

I  zeal  and  ardor  to  have  this  edict  pass.  In  all  other  civil  affairs 
he  has  ever  shown  great  moderation,  but  in  this  he  has  betrayed 
extraordinary  vehemence.  The  clergy  opposed  it,  parliament 
refused  it ;  but  the  king,  instead  of  using  this  as  an  excuse  against 
the  Huguenots,  became  greatly  incensed  against  the  Catholics, 

'set  them  at  defiance,  threatened  them,  and  finally  constrained 
them  by  force  to  submit  to  an  edict  pernicious  to  the  Catholic 
religion.  He  was  even  indignant  with  the  Archbishop  of  Tours 
for  having  caused  prayers  to  be  said  to  God  that  this  edict 
might  not  be  passed  and  that  He  would  give  the  king  His  in- 
spiration. There  can  be  no  good  reason  or  cause  for  his  maj- 
esty's fearing  or  esteeming  the  heretics,  who  are  the  worse,  the 
less  numerous,  and  the  feebler  part  of  the  kingdom,  more  than 
lie  does  the  Catholics,  who  are  the  better  part  and  the  more 
considerable  in  numbers,  quality,  and  power.  It  is  a  very  bad 
sign  that,  when  it  is  proposed  to  secure  the  passage  of  an  edict 
in  favor  of  the  heretics  and  against  the  Catholics,  he  takes  of- 
fence, speaks  authoritatively,  says  that  he  will  be  obeyed ;  and 
yet,  that  to  secure  the  reception  and  publication  of  the  decrees 
of  the  Council  of  Trent,  which  is  a  thing  holy  in  itself,  and  one 
that  he  has  promised  and  sworn  to  do,  he  has  never  once  spoken 
of  it  to  parliament,  which  is  said  to  be  less  inclined  toward  it 
than  it  ought  to  be.  It  alarms  me  that  he  so  takes  to  heart  the 
interests  of  the  heretics,  and  is  so  lukewarm  in  what  concerns 
the  Catholic  religion,  the  fulfilment  of  his  promise  and  oath. 
and  his  conscience.  I  no  longer  know  what  to  hope  for,  or 
what  to  think.  I  absolved  him  and  recognized  him  as  king 
contrary  to  the  advice  of  the  greatest  and  most  powerful  princes 
of  Christendom,  who  predicted  at  the  time  that  I  should  find 


1509.  THE   EDICT   OF   NANTES.  433 

myself  cheated.  Yet  I  did  not  fail  to  do  all  that  I  could  for 
the  king's  contentment  and  for  his  greatness ;  nor  did  I  stop 
until  I  had  given  him  peace  both  within  and  without  his  realm. 
And  now  the  return  I  am  to  receive  for  all  this  is  that  I  shall 
become  the  lauo-hino'-stock  of  the  whole  world." 

Such  were  some  of  the  complaints  of  the  pope,  who  added 
much  more  to  the  same  purpose,  and  wrought  himself  up  to  so 
high  a  pitch  of  excitement  as  even  to  inform  Cardinal  d'Ossat 
that,  as  he  had  not  hesitated  to  leap  the  ditch  one  way  to  give 
the  king  his  absolution,  so  he  would  not  shrink  from  crossing 
the  chasm  once  more  in  an  opposite  direction  were  it  necessary 
to  do  so.1 


1  Ibid. ,  ubi  supra.  Needless  to  say  that  the  shrewd  ambassador  did  not  fail 
to  use  his  opportunity  to  mollify  the  angry  pontiff,  going  to  the  length  of  en- 
deavoring to  convince  him  that  he  was  grossly  misinformed  respecting  the 
contents  of  the  edict,  and  boldly  averring  that  his  majesty  had  never  made 
the  speech  to  the  parliament  which  had  been  published  to  the  world  under 
his  name.  "  Que  nous  connoissions  bien,  que  Sa  Saintete  avoit  veu  un  certain 
ecrit,  qu'on  avoit  fait  courir  sous  le  nom  et  titre  de  reponse,  que  Votre  Majeste 
eut  faite  a  ceux  de  ladite  Cour  de  Parlement  ;  et  voulions  avertir  Sa  Saintete 
que  c'etoit  un  ecrit  faux  et  supose,  contenant  plusieurs  choses  que  Votre  Ma- 
jeste n'avoit  jamais  dites  ;  et  que  Sa  Saintete  n'y  devoit  point  ajoftter  foi, 
eomme  nous  en  avions  ete  avertis  par  ceux  qui  etoient  aupres  de  Votre  Ma- 
jeste." 

Vol.  II.  —28 


434     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XV. 


■ 


CHAPTER  XV. 

AFTER     THE     EDICT. 


The  twelve  years  which  intervened  between  the  promulgation 

of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  and  the  death  of  Henry  the  Fourth 

constitute  the    halcyon    days  of    the    Huguenots  of 

comparative    France.     No  such  period   of  comparative  peace  and 

Quiet 

prosperity  had  preceded  the  adoption  of  the  great 
law  for  their  protection.  Behind  the  Protestants  were  three- 
quarters  of  a  century  characterized  by  persecutions,  wars,  and 
massacres,  with  intervals  of  tranquillity  scarcely  sufficiently  long 
to  enable  them  to  recover  breath  and  prepare  for  the  advent  of 
new  severities.  Before  them,  though  happily  they  knew  it  not 
as  yet,  there  lay  another  term  of  three-quarters  of  a  century,  of 
which,  if  a  considerable  portion  was  to  be  peaceful  and  pros- 
perous, the  later  years  would  be  mainly  notable  for  the  gradual 
infringement  of  the  provisions  of  their  cherished  edict,  and  would 
end  in  the  formal  abrogation  of  that  edict  under  circumstance- 
of  peculiar  disregard  of  the  dictates  of  natural  justice  :  while,  still 
beyond,  there  stretched  more  than  one  hundred  years  of  pro- 
scription, a  whole  century  during  which  all  worship  of  Almighty 
God,  all  administration  of  the  sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper,  the  singing  of  the  old  Huguenot  psalms,  the  very 
possession  of  the  Huguenot  Bible,  would  be  forbidden — during 
which  the  galleys  would  be  the  punishment  meted  out  to  Buch 
laymen  as  ventured  to  frequent  the  religious  assemblies  held  on 
the  bleak  Cevennes,  and  death  upon  the  wheel  would  await  the 
venturesome  minister  of  the  Gospel  whom  the  love  of  the  souls 
of  his  brethren  in  the  faith  might  attract  to  the  sunny  but  dan- 
gerous plains  of  Languedoc. 

The  story  of  the  interval  during  which  the  Protestants  could 
claim  the  protection  of  a  monarch  not  ill-disposed  toward  them, 


1599.  AFTER  THE   EDICT.  485 

while  less  crowded  with  stirring  events  than  the  previous  period, 
possesses  its  own  peculiar  interest.  The  Huguenots  began  at 
once  to  enjoy  their  well-earned  peace.  Not,  indeed,  that  their 
opponents  made  haste  to  concede  the  rights  which  the 
of  the  par-  law  of  Henry  had  granted  or  confirmed.  If  the  Par- 
liament of  Paris  had,  in  this  regard,  been  slow,  the 
other  sovereign  courts  were  still  more  dilatory.  The  judges 
of  Grenoble  wraited  until  September,  1599  ;  those  of  Dijon, 
Toulouse,  and  Bordeaux  until  January,  1600,  before  they  could 
be  induced  to  give  the  edict  official  recognition.  At  Rennes, 
the  Parliament  of  Brittany  took  a  year  to  make  up  its  mind 
to  submit  to  the  king's  command,  registering  the  law  on  the 
twenty- third  of  August,  1600.  The  Parliament  of  Aix-en- 
Provence  had  done  likewise  earlier  in  the  same  month ;  while 
the  refractory  Parliament  of  Normandy,  in  session  at  Rouen, 
did,  indeed,  enter  the  obnoxious  law  upon  its  records  within 
three  months  from  the  time  of  its  reception,  but  accompanied 
it  with  modifications  and  saving  clauses,  calculated  to  rob  it  of 
much  of  its  usefulness  to  the  Protestants,  which  it  declined, 
for  a  period  of  not  less  than  ten  years,  to  erase.  Only  on  the 
fifth  of  August,  1609,  did  these  stubborn  magistrates  consent  to 
receive  the  edict  in  its  official  shape,  at  the  same  time  making  a 
minute  of  the  fact  that  they  accepted  the  law  "  on  the  very  ex- 
press command  of  the  king,  several  times  repeated,  both  by  word 
of  mouth  and  in  writing."  ' 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  refer  briefly  to  the  conduct  of  two 

or   three   of  these  judicial  bodies.      After  deliberating   upon 

the  edict  for  more  than  three  weeks,  the  Parliament 

The  "Parlifl.- 

mentofBor-  of  Bordeaux  resolved  to  send  a  deputation  to  the 
king  with  a  budget  of  complaints,  which  might  be 
summed  up  under  three  heads,  according  as  they  were  direct- 
ed against  the  extension  given  to  Protestant  worship,  the  admis- 
sion of  Protestants  to  all  offices,  and  the  re-establishment  of  the 
hated  "  chambres  mi-parties  "  and  "  tri-parties."  The  deputies 
were  instructed  to  inform  his  majesty  that,  unless  these  points 


1  See  Anquez,  Histoire  des  assemblies  politiques  des  Reformes  de  France, 
177-180. 


436      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XV. 

should  be  remedied,  the  parliament  would  never  receive  the 
edict  of  its  own  accord,  preferring  that  the  king  should  do  every- 
thing of  his  sovereign  authority  rather  than  submit  to  voluntary 
degradation.  But  the  envoys  returned  home  with  the  unwel- 
come intelligence  that  Henry  not  only  blamed  the  judges  severe- 
ly for  their  remonstrances,  but  threatened  them  with  suspen- 
sion or  removal. 

President  Chessac  and  counsellor  Jessac  had  surprised  King 

Henry  while  he  was  frolicking  with  his  children  in  the   great 

hall  of  the  castle  of  Saint  Germain-en-Laye,  but  his  majesty  was 

not  at  all  disconcerted  by  their  unexpected  apparition.     "  Do  not 

think  it  strange,"  said  he,  "that  you  see  me  sporting 

Henry's  ad-  .  ®    '  _  '  /  ■ 

dress  to  the  with  these  little  children.  I  can  beget  children,  and  I 
know  how  to  undo  men.  I  have  just  been  playing  the 
fool  with  my  children ;  now  I  am  going  to  play  the  wise  man  with 
you  and  give  you  audience."  So  saying  he  led  the  way  into  an 
adjoining  chamber,  where  for  a  whole  hour  and  a  quarter  he  lis- 
tened attentively  to  what  the  president  had  to  say.  At  the  con- 
clusion he  had  the  good  grace  to  congratulate  the  orator  upon  his 
harangue,  declaring  that  never  in  all  his  life  had  he  heard  any- 
thing better  spoken.  "  But,"  said  he,  "I  would  that  the  body 
corresponded  with  the  garment  in  which  it  is  arrayed ;  for  I  see 
clearly  that  your  maxims  and  your  proposals  are  precisely  the 
same  as  those  which  the  late  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  set  forth  be- 
fore the  late  king,  in  the  city  of  Lyons,  when  his  majesty  was  on 
his  return  from  Poland,  tending  to  the  commotion  in  the  state 
which  we  have  witnessed.  Thank  God,  we  have  obtained  the 
peace  we  so  longed  for.  It  has  cost  us  too  much  that  we  should 
endanger  it  by  troubles.  I  mean  to  continue  that  peace,  and  to 
inflict  exemplary  chastisement  upon  any  man  that  may  under- 
take to  introduce  change.  I  am  your  lawful  king,  your  head.'' 
Then  alluding  to  the  orator's  boast  that,  alone  among  the  parlia- 
ments of  France,  the  court  he  represented  had  remained  stead- 
fast in  its  loyalty,  he  remarked  with  biting  sarcasm  :  "  Assured- 
ly, you  were  very  fortunate  in  that.  Yet,  after  God,  we  must 
ascribe  the  praise  not  merely  to  you,  who  never  lacked  the  evil 
disposition  to  create  a  disturbance  like  the  rest,  but  to  the  late 
Marshal  Matignon,  who  held  a  tight  rein  over  you  and  prevented 


1599.  AFTER  THE   EDICT.  437 

you  from  doing  so.  Long  ago,  when  only  King  of  Navarre,  I 
understood  your  complaint  full  well,  but  had  not  the  remedies 
at  hand.  Now  that  I  am  King  of  France  I  comprehend  it  still 
better,  and  I  have  the  medicines  to  cure  it  and  to  cause  those  to 
repent  who  would  oppose  my  commands.  I  have  made  an  edict. 
I  intend  that  it  shall  be  observed.  Whatever  may  happen,  I 
mean  to  be  obeyed.     It  will  be  well  for  you  if  you  do  so."  ' 

Nor  were  Henry's  menaces  all.  Chancellor  Bellievre  and 
Marshal  Ornano  wrote  letters  directly  to  the  judges,  and  coun- 
selled submission  to  the  royal  will,  assuring  them  "  that  the 
king  had  given  the  edict  to  the  Huguenots  by  treaty  and,  as  it 
were,  by  contract,  and  that  so  his  faith  was  pledged."  2  The 
judges  of  Bordeaux  thereupon  registered  the  edict  "  by  the  very 
express  command  of  the  king,  and  without  approval  of  any 
other  religion  than  the  Roman  Catholic."  But  their  perverse 
opposition  did  not  end  here.  Unable  to  annul,  they  attempted 
to  thwart.  In  no  case  was  the  letter,  much  less  the  spirit,  of 
the  provisions  admitting  Protestants  to  office  duly  observed. 
True,  the  Protestant  members  of  the  Chamber  of  Nerac  were 
by  letters  patent  accorded  the  same  salaries,  honors,  authority, 
and  rank  as  their  Roman  Catholic  associates ;  but  the  parlia- 
ment registered  that  document  only  upon  condition  that  they 
be  styled  "  counsellors  in  the  court  and  chamber  of  the  edict," 
and  be  not  reckoned  as  forming  part  of  the  parliamentary  body. 
When,  therefore,  they  presented  themselves  to  take  the  custom- 
ary oath,  they  were  excused  from  doing  so  on  the  ground  that 
they  had  already  been  sworn  in  the  presence  of  the  chancellor. 
Good  care  was  taken  not  to  inscribe  their  names  on  the  tabular 
statement  made  up  at  the  beginning  of  each  year,  and,  to  facili- 
tate the  omission,  the  names  of  their  Roman  Catholic  colleagues 
were  likewise  left  out.     There  was  little  prospect  that  a  cham- 


1  "Reponse  du  Roy  a  messieurs  les  depputez  de  Bourdeaux,  messieurs  le 
second  president  Chessac  et  conseiller  Jessac  et  autres,  faicte  a  Sainct  Germain 
en  Lave,  le  3e  de  nov.  1599,  sur  la  verification  de  l'edict  de  Nantes."  MSS. 
Nat.  Library.     Lettres  missives,  v.  180,  181. 

2  "Que  le  roi  avait  bailie  1'edit  aux  huguenots  par  traite  et  quasi  par  contrat, 
et  qu'ainsi  sa  foi  etait  engagee."  Boscheron  des  Fortes,  Histoire  du  parlement 
de  Bordeaux,  i.  325. 


438      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    On.  XV. 

ber  so  treated  would  prove  to  be  of  much  practical  utility, 
pecially  when  the  judges  were  themselves  equally  divided  be- 
tween the  two  opposing  faiths.1 

The  king  granted  audience  to  the  deputies  from  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Toulouse  upon  the  same  day  on  which  he  met  their 
colleagues  of  Bordeaux.  His  reply  to  their  remonstrance  was 
determined,  almost  angry.     "It  is  strange,"  said  he, 


Henry  and  the 

Parliamei 

Toulouse, 


>ntof  "that  you  cannot  cast  out  your  ill-will.     I  perceive 


very  well  that  you  still  have  the  Spaniard  in  your 
belly  !  Who  would  believe  it,  that  those  who  have  hazarded 
life,  property,  and  honor  for  the  defence  and  preservation  of  this 
kingdom  are  to  be  deemed  unworthy  of  honorable  and  public 
trusts,  like  treacherous  Leaguers  who  deserve  to  be  set  upon  and 
driven  from  the  kingdom  ?  Meanwhile,  the  men  that  have  left 
no  stone  unturned  to  ruin  the  state  would  be  regarded  as  good 
Frenchmen,  meriting  and  competent  to  hold  offices  !  I  am  not 
blind;  I  see  clearly.  I  mean  that  '  those  of  the  Religion  '  shall 
live  in  peace  in  my  kingdom,  and  be  capable  of  taking  office ; 
[  not  because  they  are  of  the  '  Religion, '  but  inasmuch  as  they 
have  been  faithful  servants  of  mine  and  of  the  French  crown. 
I  am  determined  to  be  obeyed.  I  am  resolved  that  my  edict 
be  published  throughout  my  kingdom.  It  is  time  that  all  of 
us,  sated  with  war,  should  learn  wisdom  from  our  own  experi- 
ence." 2 

These  were  not  the  words  of  a  monarch  upon  whom  an  un- 
welcome law  had  been  forced  by  rebellious  subjects,  and  who 
was  engaged  in  an  unpalatable  undertaking  when  striving  to 
secure  for  it  judicial  recognition.  The  integrity  and  patriotism 
of  the  Huguenots  could  not  have  been  more  distinctly  indorsed  ; 
their  claim  to  grateful  recognition  on  the  part  of  the  king,  whom 
they  had  been  mainly  instrumental  in  placing  upon  the  throne, 
could  not  have  been  more  frankly  admitted. 

Nor  did  Henry's  zeal  cool  down  with  the  lapse  of  time.  We 
have  seen  that  the  Edict  of  Nantes  was  not  recorded  in  its  in- 


1  Boscheron  des  Portes,  Histoire  du  parlement  de  Bordeaux,  i.  325-329. 

2  "  La  Rcponse  du  Roy  aux  depputez  de  Tholose  touchaut  la  verification  de 
Tedict  de  Nantes."     MSS.  Nat.  Library.     Lettres  missives,  v.  181,  1^*2. 


1609.  AFTER  THE   EDICT.  439 

tegrity  upon  the  books  of  the  Parliament  of  Normandy  until 
August,  1609,  that  is  to  say,  less  than  a  year  before  the  mon- 
arch's death.   If  the  judges  were  obstinate,  if  the  con- 

The  Parlia- 

ment  of  test  was,  as  has  been  suggested,  the  longest  and  most 
determined  in  which  a  parliament  of  France  is  known 
ever  to  have  engaged,  certainly  Henry,  though  slow  in  com- 
ing to  extreme  measures,  was  not  less  resolute  than  they.  He 
had  about  reached  the  conclusion  to  send  commissioners  to  ex- 
ecute the  law  at  Rouen,  even  without  a  previous  registration,  to 
grant  the  Protestants  of  Normandy  the  right  to  remove  all  their 
cases  from  the  supreme  court  of  the  province  to  the  "  Chamber 
of  the  Edict "  at  Paris,  possibly  even  to  suspend  the  functions 
of  the  Parliament  of  Rouen  altogether,  when  the  latter  discov- 
ered its  error  and  remedied  it.  If  the  last  to  come  to  terms, 
this  body  was  also  the  only  one  of  the  great  judicial  bodies  that 
ultimately  recorded  the  edict  without  any  modifications.  It  wass 
characteristic  of  Henry  of  Bourbon  that,  even  through  his  justi- 
fiable irritation  at  the  parliament's  exasperating  refusals,  his  na- 
tive good-humor  and  kindliness  of  disposition  did  not  fail  to  man- 
ifest themselves.  He  condescended  to  reason  with  the  judges. 
"  Had  you  known  the  damage,"  said  he,  "  which  this  delay  in- 
flicts upon  my  affairs,  I  will  presume  so  much  upon  your  affec- 
tion as  to  believe  that  you  would  not  have  proved  so  intractable ;. 
if  only  for  the  reason  that  you  thus  expose  me  to  a  ceaseless  im-\ 
portunity,  and  leave  me  burdened  by  extraordinary  expenses  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  garrisons  in  the  cities  which  the  Protes-  , 
tants  retain  and  will  not  restore  until  after  my  edict  shall  have  | 
been  everywhere  recorded.  You  must  yield.  I  beg  you  to  do  so." ' 

Meanwhile,  if  the  parliaments  were  stubborn  in  their  resist-  i 
ance,  the  Huguenots  were  not  wanting  in  urgent  efforts  to  se- 
cure the  full  execution  of  the  edict.     Unwilling  to 

Persistence  of 

the  Hugue-      abandon  the  slightest  point  that  had  been  granted  to 

them,  many  of  the  leaders  insisted  that  the  king  should 

restore  to  the  edict  even  those  features — referred  to  in  the 

last  chapter  of  this  history — of  minor  importance  though  they 

1  A  full  account  is  given  in  Floquet,  Histoire  du  parlement  de  Normandie, 
iv.  261-269. 


440      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XV. 

might  be,  which  had  been  removed  for  the  purpose  of  breaking 
the  force  of  their  opponents'  objections.  The  more  judicious, 
however,  were  by  no  means  disposed  to  endanger  the  perma- 
nence of  the  great  boon  which  had  been  secured  by  ill-timed 
demands  for  more  ;  and  his  majesty  himself  was  firm  in  the 
refusal  to  reopen  the  matter.  Doubtless,  the  objects  which  the 
Huguenots  had  in  view  were  the  most  proper  and  just;  but  it 
required  all  the  influence  which  could  be  exerted  by  Duplessis 
Mornay,  and  by  other  men  of  the  same  stamp,  to  impress  upon 
their  more  excitable  and  impulsive,  but  not  less  conscientious, 
brethren  the  importance  of  distinguishing  between  what  was 
necessary  to  the  very  existence  of  the  churches  and  what  was 
merely  conducive  to  comfort  and  ease.  The  great  man  just 
named  was  no  blind  optimist,  bent  upon  persuading  himself  and 
others  that  the  perfect  ideal  of  religious  prosperity  had  been 
reached.  But  he  saw  in  the  present  state  of  things  clear 
grounds  for  joy  and  for  gratitude  to  the  Almighty. 

"  Our  churches,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend  across  the  Channel, 

"  enjoy,  by  the  grace  of  God,  and  under  the  blessing  of  the 

king's  edicts,  a  condition  which  they  are  not  disposed  to  change. 

The  Gospel  is  freely  preached,  and  not  without  prog- 

Hopeful  con-  T.         .,.r,  ttt      i  r       T 

ditionofthe    ress.     Justice  is  dispensed  to  us.     \\  e  have  towns  m 

churches.  .  -i-i-ip  i  tc 

which  we  can  take  shelter  from  the  storm.  It  any 
infraction  of  the  law  occurs,  our  complaints  are  listened  to  ; 
frequently  reparation  is  made.  We  might  wish  that  in  many 
localities  our  places  of  worship  were  nearer  or  more  convenient : 
that  we  had  a  greater  share  in  the  distribution  of  honors  and 
offices  ;  and,  possibly,  this  would  be  neither  without  its  advan- 
tages nor  unmerited  by  our  past  services.  But  these  are  things 
to  be  desired,  not  to  be  exacted ;  matters  for  complaint  either 
emanating  from  Christians  who  are  too  delicate,  or  based  on 
purely  human  considerations.  To  set  the  world  in  commotion 
for  this,  even  in  the  slightest  degree,  we  are  not  at  all  inclined. 
God  knows  the  progress  that  He  wishes  to  grant  to  His  Church, 
and  He  has  the  means  in  His  own  hand.  To  us  it  belongs  not 
to  rush  forward,  but  to  draw  back  from  passing  the  bounds  of 
piety  and  justice.  Only,  may  it  please  God  to  preserve  our 
king  for  us,  to  maintain  him  in  his  present  disposition  to  avert 


1508—1610.  AFTER   THE   EDICT.  441 

all  contrary  counsels.  I  deny  not,  however,  that  our  churches 
have  apprehensions — fears  which,  as  says  the  jurisconsult,  fall 
even  upon  constant  men — when  they  hear  that  the  Jesuits, 
those  firebrands  of  Christendom,  take  possession  of  his  ears; 
when,  from  time  to  time,  that  society  proposes  the  establish- 
ment of  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent."  ' 

The  fact  was  the  condition  of  the  Huguenots  was  one  in  which 
hope  and  fear  were  mingled,  but  in  which  hope  preponderated 
over  fear.  The  malice  of  their  enemies  had  not  been  removed, 
and  a  watchful  clergy  was  ever  ready  to  take  advantage  of  preju- 
dices long  rife  among  the  people.  Yet  that  malice  was  well 
kept  in  check  by  a  government  generally  inclined  to  be  cautious, 
often  to  be  conspicuously  fair.  At  times  the  magistrates  even 
went  to  the  length  of  prohibiting  popular  songs  which,  because 
insulting  to  the  Protestants,  might  at  any  moment  be- 
songspro-       come  the  cause  of  sedition.     So  it  fared  with  a  frivo- 

scribed 

lous  ditty  entitled  "  La  vache  a  Colas,"  which,  Lestoile 
tells  us,  had  attained  such  wide  currency  that,  at  Paris  and  in  all 
the  towns  and  villages  of  France,  scarcely  anything  else  was 
"La  vache  a  heard.     Great  and  small  vied  with  one  another,  and 

delighted  themselves,  above  all,  in  singing  it  at  every 
Huguenot  door,  to  provoke  the  inmates,  until  such  time  as  the 
authorities  made  proclamation,  at  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  (on 
the  tenth  of  September,  1605),  forbidding  its  repetition  in  the 
streets.  Yet  the  production,  which  occasioned  much  scandal 
and  some  bloodshed,  was  as  silly  as  it  was  weak ;  having  for 
subject  the  misfortune  of  poor  Nicolas  or  Colas,  whose  cow  was 
said  to  have  found  her  way  into  a  Protestant  "preche,"  at 
Orleans  or  Chartres,  during  the  time  of  service,  and  had  been 
killed  by  the  terrified  attendants.2 

Occasionally,  but,  it  is  to  be  feared,  not  very  often,  the  Protes- 
tant and  Roman  Catholic  communities  lived  together  in  a  char- 
ity well  worthy  of  being  called  Christian.  The  little  town  of 
Castelmoron,  in  the  very  centre  of  the  modern  department  of 


1  Duplessis  Mornay  to  M.  de  la  Fontaine,  March  26,  1604,  Memoires,  v.  539, 
540. 

2  Lestoile,  ii.  387. 


442     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XV. 

Lot-et-Garonne,  presented  a  signal  instance,  which,  but  for  the 
fortunate  preservation  of  a  stray  legal  document,  might  never 
casteimoron,  have  been  known  to  posterity.  This  is  nothing  less 
cfi£nf  than  a  compact,  solemnly  attested,  between  the  adhe- 
chanty.  rents  of  the  two  religions,  to  continue  to  use  in  com- 
mon the  parish  cemetery,  as  well  as  the  belfry  and  the  bell, 
and  more  especially  to  contribute,  each  according  to  his  means, 
as  determined  by  the  tax-roll,  to  the  repairs  to  the  belfry,  now  in 
a  dangerous  condition.  Casteimoron  was  situated  in  the  midst 
of  a  region  formerly  the  scene  of  Blaise  de  Montluc's  barbarous 
exploits  ;  yet  this  document  vouches  for  the  fact  that,  "  since 
the  rise  of  the  troubles  in  France  resulting  from  diversity  of  re- 
ligions, the  inhabitants  of  this  town,  parish,  and  jurisdiction,  by 
God's  blessing,  have  deported  themselves  so  kindly  to  one  an- 
other, under  the  tolerance  of  the  king's  edicts,  that  they  have 
had  no  debates  or  contentions  on  account  of  religion,  whether 
for  its  worship,  for  the  burial  of  the  deceased  of  either  religion, 
for  the  use  of  bell  and  belfry,  or  for  other  matters  which  have 
caused  many  contests  elsewhere.  On  the  contrary,  the  inhabi- 
tants of  both  religions  have  buried  their  dead  in  the  parish 
cemetery,  and  in  the  tombs  of  their  ancestors,  without  distinction 
of  persons,  and  have  made  use  of  the  bell  to  call  the  people  to 
divine  worship,  to  hear  the  '  preches '  and  sermons,  and  to  cele- 
brate baptisms,  marriages,  and  other  exercises  of  God's  service."  ' 
Of  the  condition  and  prospects  of  the  Huguenots  at  this  epoch 
in  their  history  we  have  a  quaint  account  in  the  treatise  of  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys,  entitled  "  Europse  Speculum,''  written  in  Paris 
itself,  just  after  the  verification  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  by  the 
Parliament  of  Paris.  "  Of  France,"  says  the  author,  "  how 
much  the  better  it  is  known  unto  us  at  home,  so  much  the  less 
sir  Edwin  shall  I  need  to  speak  much  in  this  place.  Neither  is 
Sandys' view.  j£  veiy  easv  t0  proportion  the  parties,  by  reason  they 
of  the  Religion  are  so  scattered  in  all  places.  Yet  in  Poitou 
they  have  almost  all ;  in  Gascoignie,  an  half ;    in  Languedoc, 


1  "Accord  entre  les  catholiques  et  les  protestants  de  Casteimoron,  en  Agenais, 
13  septembre,  1609."    Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de  lhlstoire  du  Protestantisme 


francais,  ii.  502-505. 


1590.  AFTER  THE  EDICT.  443 

Normandy,  and  other  west-maritime  provinces,  a  reasonable 
strong  part ;  as  likewise  in  sundry  Mediterranean,  of  which 
Delphinat  (Dauphiny)  the  chief.  But  whatsoever  be  the  pro- 
portion of  their  number  to  their  opposites,  which  is  manifoldly 
inferior— not  one  in  twenty — their  strength  is  such  as  their  wars 
have  witnessed  ;  and  especially  that  at  this  day,  after  such  mas- 
sacring them,  so  general  a  rising  of  the  whole  realm  against 
them,  by  the  utmost  extremity  of  lire  and  sword  to  exterminate 
them,  they  are  esteemed  to  be  stronger  than  at  any  time  here- 
tofore— in  sum,  so  strong  that  neither  have  their  adversaries,  I 
trow,  any  great  hope  and  themselves  no  fear  to  be  borne  down 
by  war.  That  the  practices  of  peace  by  partiality  and  injustice 
in  their  suits  litigious  (which  hath  already  sorely  bitten  and 
afflicted  their  estates),  by  depriving  them  of  place  of  office  and 
honor  in  the  realm,  by  confining  the  exercise  of  their  religion 
into  chambers  or  remote  corners,  did  not  impoverish,  abase,  and 
dishearten  their  party,  and  so  withdraw  those  from  them  which 
would  otherwise  stick  to  them — this  is  that  which  they  have 
misdoubted,  and  which  by  the  edict  now  passed  and  verified 
they  have  sought  to  remedy. 

"  But,  looking  a  little  more  attentively  into  this  party,  I  find 
that,  as  conscience  in  what  religion  soever  doth,  even  in  the 
mists  of  error,  breed  an  honestness  of  mind  and  integrity  of  life 
and  actions  in  whom  it  settleth  (of  so  divine  and  pure  virtue  is 
the  love  of  the  Creator,  which  is  the  ground  of  all  that  merit 
the  name  of  religious),  so  also  that  in  them  which  aifect  the 
greatest  singleness,  and,  in  a  manner,  a  very  careless  simplicity 
in  their  religion,  as  contenting  themselves  with  the  possession 
of  the  rich  treasure  of  truth,  and  for  the  preserving  of  it  or 
themselves  recommending  those  cases  to  Grod  only,  yet  tract  of 
affliction,  much  misery,  often  overreaching  by  subtlety  of  adver- 
saries, doth  finally  purge  out  those  gross-witted  humors  and 
engender  a  very  curious  and  advantageous  wariness  in  all  their 
proceedings ;  having  learned  by  experience  the  wisdom  of  that 
aphorism,  that  a  small  error  in  the  foundation  and  beginning  of 
all  things  doth  prove  in  the  proceeding  and  end  of  them  a  great 
mischief.  As  hath  fallen  out  in  these  men,  who  do  as  far  here 
outgo  their  opposites  in  all  civil  policies  as  in   other   places 


444      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.   XV. 

they  of  their  religion  are  lightly  outgone  by  them.  Which, 
next  unto  the  divine  blessing  which  accompanieth  good  causes, 
where  wickedness  or  wilful  witlessness  does  not  bar  against  it, 
I  account  the  chief  reason  of  their  present  strength  and  assur- 
ance. By  their  providence  in  their  capitulations,  by  their  reso- 
luteness in  their  executions,  by  their  industry  and  dexterity  in 
all  occasions  presented,  they  have  possessed  themselves  of  an 
exceeding  great  number  of  towns  and  places.  There  is  scant 
any  office  or  estate  can  fall  void  but  they  lay  in  by  all  means 
to  get  into  it.  They  have  their  synods  for  their  church  affair.-, 
their  conventions  and  councils  for  their  civil.  Their  people  is 
warlike,  and  so  will  they  continue  them.  Their  only  want  is 
of  a  prince  of  the  blood  to  grace  them ;  for  as  for  leader.-,  a 
matter  of  main  importance,  they  are  still  above  their  adver- 
saries, having,  besides  those  three  of  principal  and  known  name, 
sundry  other  in  Gascoignie  of  less  place  and  degree,  but  in 
skill  and  prowess  not  inferior  to  the  best.  In  fine,  they  have 
learned  the  wisdom  of  Spes  sihi  quisque  and  fxefivqao  aTrio-rdv, 
the  contrary  whereof  before  brought  them  so  near  to  their 
ruin."  J 

The  difficulty  experienced  by  Sir  Edwin  in  estimating  the 
number  of  the  adherents  of  the  Protestant  religion  in  Prance 
still  invests  the  subject;  not,  indeed,  that  all  data  are  wanting, 
but  because  of  the  somewhat  vague  and  contradictory  statements 

1  Europae  Speculum;  or,  a  View  or  Survey  of  the  State  of  Religion  in  the 
Westerne  parts  of  the  World  (Hagae-Comitis,  1629),  170-179.  This  inter  • 
production,  the  fruit  of  extended  travels  and  personal  observation  in  different 
countries  of  Europe,  is  in  the  form  of  a  letter  of  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
pages,  addressed  to  John  Whitgift,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  dated 
Paris,  April  9,  1599.  The  object  of  the  learned  author  (son  and  namesake  i  I 
the  distinguished  reforming  Archbishop  of  York)  was  not  merely  to  inquire 
into  the  condition  of  Christendom,  but  to  discover  "  what  possibility  and  good 
means  there  may  be  of  uniting  at  leastwise  the  several  branches  of  the  Re- 
formed professors,  if  unity  universal  be  more  to  be  desired  than  hoped."  The 
Europae  Speculum  was  not  published,  except  in  a  garbled  form,  until  thirty 
years  after  its  composition  ;  but  the  garbled  edition  in  question  had  already 
been  translated  into  Italian,  and  had  been  honored  with  a  place  in  the  "In- 
dex librorum  prohibitorum,"  where  it  still  figures:  "  Sandis,  Edoino,  Rela- 
tione dello  stato  della  Religione,  etc.,"  condemned  by  decree  of  Februarv  4, 
1627. 


1598—1610.  AFTER   THE   EDICT.  445 

that  have  come  down  to  us.  It  would  seem,  however,  that 
Sandys,  in  reducing  the  Huguenots  to  less  than  a  twentieth  part 
of  the  population  of  France,  has  fallen  into  almost  as  great  an 
error  as  those  other  writers  who  represent  them  as  constituting 
a  full  third  of  the  kingdom.  According  to  a  writer  whose  ac- 
curacy is  unfortunately  as  open  to  suspicion  as  his  honesty  is 
Protestant  above  reproach,  Henry  the  Fourth  instituted  a  census 
of  his  Protestant  subjects,  in  part  to  gratify  the  curi- 
osity of  Queen  Elizabeth  of  England.  Upon  its  completion,  in 
March,  159S,  it  was  found  that  the  Huguenot  community  con- 
sisted of  two  hundred  and  seventy-four  thousand  families,  or 
one  million  and  a  quarter  of  souls.  Of  these  families,  two  thou- 
sand four  hundred  and  sixty-eight  ranked  as  noble.  Of  churches 
there  were  nine  hundred  and  fifty-one  ;  six  hundred  and  ninety- 
four  being  public,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty-seven  attached  to 
fiefs.  The  ministers  of  the  Gospel  were  said  to  number  two 
thousand  eight  hundred,  and  the  "  proposants,"  or  candidates 
for  the  ministry,  four  hundred.1  Implicit  confidence  cannot  be 
reposed  in  these  statistics.  The  number  of  ministers,  which 
may  be  an  error  of  the  pen  for  eight  hundred,  is  greatly  over- 
stated. The  number  of  churches  exceeds  considerably  the  seven 
hundred  and  sixty-three  reported  by  the  Synod  of  Montpellier, 
in  the  month  of  May,  1598,2  the  seven  hundred  and  fifty-three 
reported  by  the  Synod  of  Jargeaux,  in  1601, 3  the  seven  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  reported  by  the  Synod  of  La  Rochelle,  in  1607,4 
and  the  eight  hundred  and  seven  reported  by  the  Synod  of 
Alencon,  in  1637. 5     It  may,  however,  be  concluded  with  safety 

1  Gregorio  Leti,  in  his  Italian  life  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  ii.  348,  apud  Bulletin 
de  la  Societe  de  l'histoire  du  Protestantisme  franc^ais,  i.  123,  124,  where  M.  Eu- 
gene Haag  has  briefly  discussed  these  figures. 

2  Aymon,  Tous  les  Synodes,  i.  226. 

3  Ibid. ,  i.  252,  253. 

4  Ibid.,  i.  340,  341. 

6  Ibid.,  i.  291-306  (of  Introduction).  This  last  list  is  particularly  valuable, 
both  because  of  its  detail  and  of  the  fact  that  it  was  the  last  drawn  up  before 
the  suppression  of  the  national  synods  of  the  Reformed  churches.  The  consider- 
able increase  in  the  number  of  individual  churches  is  due  to  the  circumstance 
that  those  of  Beam,  not  previously  included  in  the  enumeration,  and  amount- 
ing to  forty-seven  in  all,  are  added  to  the  list. 


446      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE    Ca  XV. 

that  the  Protestants  of  France,  including  Henry's  hereditary 
kingdom  of  Navarre,  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  and  in  the  he- 
ginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  constituted  a  body  of  one 
million  or  one  million  and  a  quarter  of  souls — possibly  one- 
twelfth  or  one-fifteenth  of  the  entire  population — and  boasting 
between  eight  hundred  and  one  thousand  churches,  large  and 
small,  where  divine  worship  was  conducted  by  a  somewhat 
smaller  number  of  ordained  ministers,  never,  perhaps,  exceeding 
seven  or  eight  hundred.1 

One  matter  seemed  likely  to  furnish  subject  for  contention 
between  the  crown  and  the  adherents  of  the  Reformed  faith. 
Their  "  political  assemblies "  had  too  long  proved  serviceable 
to  the  Protestants  that  they  should  be  willing  to  renounce  the 
political  as-  liberty  to  convene  them.  It  was  the  misfortune  of 
semoiies.  tiie  p0sjtion  into  which  the  malice  of  their  foes,  and 
especially  the  League,  had  driven  them,  that  the  Huguenots 
seemed  to  occupy  the  attitude  of  an  armed  force  compelled  ever 
to  be  on  the  alert  to  ward  off  the  hostile  attacks  to  which  they 
wrere  exposed.  Under  such  circumstances,  deprived,  as  they 
were,  of  that  protection  which,  under  a  more  stable  and  equit- 
able government,  they  might  have  invoked  from  the  laws,  and 
liable  to  the  additional  peril  of  finding  in  unfriendly  governors 
and  prejudiced  judges  their  most  formidable  enemies — Bince 
the  former  might  defy  the  edict,  the  latter  render  its  provisions 
of  no  avail  by  chicanery — the  Huguenots  set  a  high  price 
upon  the  unity  of  action  afforded  to  them  by  their  representa- 
tive bodies,  and  particularly  by  those  that  had  to  do  with  the 
more  secular  concerns  of  the  churches.  Through  the  political 
assemblies,  provincial  and  national,  the  sense  of  the  Reformed 
community  could  at  any  time  be  quickly  and  certainly  as 
tained,  measures  of  self-defence  be -prudently  concerted,  a  har- 
monious plan  of  action  be  adopted.  To  the  monarch,  for  the 
very  same  reason,  these  gatherings  were  suspicious:  and  the 
prince  who,  before  his  accession  to  the  throne,  had  seen  in  them 
a  very  legitimate  and  very  acceptable  means  of  advancing  his 


1  On  the  list  last  named  there  are  six  hundred  and  forty-seven  names  of 
pastors.     See  the  remarks  of  Benoist,  i.  257. 


1601.  AFTER   THE   EDICT.  447 

interests,  now  frowned  upon  them  as  tending  to  form  or  per- 
petuate an  ecclesiastical  republic  within  the  bounds  of  the  civil 
commonwealth.1 

Henry  did,  indeed,  grant  permission  to  the  political  assembly 
of  Chatellerault,  before  its  adjournment  in  June,  1598,  to  make 
provision  for  another  similar  body  to  convene  at  Saumur  and 
remain  together  until  the  formal  publication  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes  by  the  Parliament  of  Paris.  It  may  be  that  his  majesty 
entertained  less  apprehension  that  this  body  might  procure  him 
annoyance,  from  the  fact  that  it  had  been  stipulated  that  the 
selection  of  its  members  should  virtually  be  left  to  him.  Each 
of  the  provinces  did,  indeed,  nominate  three  candidates  to 
represent  it,  but  to  the  crown  was  left  the  designation  of 
the  one  who  should  go  to  Saumur.2  In  the  unsettled  condi- 
tion of  their  affairs,  it  appeared  only  reasonable,  even  to  the 
king,  that  the  Protestants,  whose  interests  were  so  vitally  con- 
cerned, should  be  able  to  act  in  a  corporate  capacity,  in  case 
of  any  sudden  emergency.  Subsequently  his  majesty  inter- 
posed no  considerable  objection  to  the  prolongation  of  the 
existence  of  the  assembly  until  the  establishment  of  the 
"  chambre  mi-partie "  at  Nerac.  But  when  this  had  been 
Assembly  of  effected  (September,  1600),  and  the  assembly  of 
saumur,  1600.  Sailmur  still  continued  its  sessions,  the  king  exhib- 
ited his  displeasure  and  called  for  the  dispersion  of  the  mem- 
bers.3 

Some  Protestants,  among  them  Duke  Claude  de  la  Tre- 
mouille,  remonstrated  with  the  assembly  against  what  they 
considered  an  abuse  of  the  royal  patience.     But  the  members 

1  "  Le  roy  a  congedie  l'assemblee  de  Saumur,"  wrote  the  Duke  of  Bouillon, 
"monstrant  avoir  quelque  jalousie  que  cela  formast  un  corps  dans  son  estat." 
Bouillon  to  Bongars,  apud  Anquez,  186. 

2  Anquez,  172.  This  author  says  (p.  208)  that  in  1601  the  Protestants  count- 
ed fifteen  provinces.  His  list,  however,  includes  only  fourteen.  There  was  a 
considerable  fluctuation  in  the  designation. 

3  See  especially  the  letter  of  Fresnes-Forget,  Secretary  of  State,  to  Duplessis 
Mornay,  St.  Germain,  March  27,  1601,  in  Memoires,  ix.  408-409.  The  secretary 
asked  Duplessis  Mornay  to  use  his  influence  in  persuading  the  assembly  to 
disband.  If  there  should  be  any  opposition  to  the  king's  will,  he  told  him, 
11  without  doubt  you  will  be  credited  with  it." 


448      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE    Ch.  XV. 

saw  in  the  horizon  such  signs  of  danger  as  seemed  to  justify 
their  remaining  together.1  They  consequently  asked  for  the  in- 
tercession of  the  National  Synod,  then  in  session  at  Jargeaux, 
and  that  body  appointed  the  eminent  pastor  and  professor  Dan- 
iel Chamier,  together  with  the  sieur  Mara  vat,  to  go  to  court  and 
beg  his  majesty  to  be  pleased  to  grant  the  prolongation  of  the 
assembly  of  Saumur.  But  Henry  was  inflexible.2  All  that  he 
would  consent  to  was  that  the  Protestants  should  be  permitted 
to  have  one  or  two  deputies  at  court,  to  present  such  petitions 
and  complaints  as  their  fellow  religionists  might  wish  to  make 
to  the  king,  and  that  they  should  hold  an  assembly  for  the  pur- 
pose of  appointing  these  deputies.3  The  assembly  of  Saumur 
consequently  broke  up  on  the  thirty -first  of  May,  1601,  and  on 
the  sixteenth  of  October  of  the  same  year  the  assem- 
sainteFoy,     bly  of  Sainte  Foy  met.     That  very  day  the  delegates 

October,  1601.        J  p  .      .  *  .  .   _     ,       _         „     ,       , 

performed  the  duty  which  had  called  them  together, 
by  electing  two  deputies  general  to  reside  at  Paris  and  watch 
over  the  interests  of  the  Protestant  cause  throughout  the  whole 
kingdom.  Both  were  to  hold  office  for  twelve  months,  but  were 
to  spend  an  additional  month  in  instructing  their  successors 
in  the  matters  which  it  was  essential  that  thev  should  know. 


1  It  would  appear  from  a  document  in  the  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay, 
ix.  398-400 — "Lettre  de  messieurs  de  l'assemblSe  generale,  estant  lors  a  Saul- 
mur,  a  M.  de  la  Tremouille,"  January  4,  1601 — that  the  king's  Roman  Cath- 
olic advisers,  prompted  by  the  Jesuits,  were  endeavoring  to  overset  the 
"brevet" — one  of  the  four  documents  together  constituting  the  compact  of 
Nantes.  The  effort  was  the  more  likely  to  be  successful,  as  the  "brevet" 
bore  only  the  signature  of  the  king  and  the  indorsement  of  one  of  the  secre- 
taries of  state  ;  although  Henry,  when  granting  it,  had  promised  to  secure  it 
as  complete  validity  as  if  it  had  been  given  under  the  great  seal  and  verified 
by  the  parliaments.  From  another  paper  in  the  same  collection,  ix.  406— 
"  Advis  de  M.  Duplessis  pour  Messieurs  Saincte  Chaste  et  Burnier,  allant  en 
court,"  February  27,  1601 — we  learn  of  a  scheme  to  take  the  government  of 
the  Huguenot  cities  of  security  from  the  hands  of  their  exclusively  Protestant 
magistrates  and  divide  it  equally  between  the  adherents  of  the  two  opposing 
creeds. 

2  Henri  IV.  a  l'assemblee  de  Saumur,  May  1,  1601.  Anquez,  appendiee, 
509-510. 

3  Article  XXXII.,  Matieres  particulieres,  Synode  de  Gergeau  (May  9-25, 
1601),  in  Aymon,  i.  250  ;  Soulier,  Histoire  des  edits  de  pacification,  24.0.  241  ; 
Letter  of  Bouillon  to  Bongars,  ubi  supra. 


1601.  AFTER   THE   EDICT.  449 

Although  it  would  seem  that  no  distinction  was  drawn  between 
their  powers,  a  discrimination  was  made  in  favor  of  the  deputy 
chosen  from  the  nobles  in  respect  of  salary  ;  he  was  to  receive 
six  thousand  livres,  while  the  member  from  the  "  third  estate  " 
was  paid  one-quarter  less. 

This  step  was  an  important  one.  For  the  first  time  the  Hu- 
guenots were  permitted  official  representation  at  court,  in  the 
The  deputies  Person  °f  one  or  two  men  of  tried  fidelity  and  ability, 
general.  expressly  chosen  that  they  might  be  present  to  notice 

and  remonstrate  against  any  infraction  of  the  edict,  now  be- 
come a  fundamental  law  of  the  realm,  as  well  as  to  urge  upon 
the  king  any  measure  which  might  be  necessary  for  the  defence 
of  their  brethren  in  the  faith.  Receiving  a  salary,  liberal  in 
amount  for  the  times,  and  thus  raised  above  the  necessity,  if 
not  the  temptation,  of  receiving  bribes,  they  were  sworn  not  to 
accept  any  office,  money,  or  benefice  during  their  term  of  ser- 
vice, and  to  exact  from  government  the  appropriation  promised 
for  the  support  of  the  Protestant  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  as 
well  as  the  sums  for  the  maintenance  of  the  garrisons  in  the 
cities  placed  in  Protestant  hands.1  Scarcely  could  a  better  plan 
have  been  devised  for  preserving  the  rights  of  the  churches  and 
for  reducing  the  probability  of  disruption.  To  use  the  figure 
of  a  contemporary,  the  deputies  general  were  the  two  eyes  of 
the  Huguenot  churches,  without  which  they  must  have  groped 
their  way  and  lived  in  darkness,  but  possessing  which  they  were 
able  to  keep  themselves  well  advised  respecting  the  designs  of 
their  enemies,  and  defer,  if  they  could  not  ultimately  dissipate, 
the  storms  to  which  they  were  exposed.2 

From  Messrs.  de  Saint  Germain  and  Desbordes-Mercier,  the 
first  persons  elected  to  this  responsible  position,  to  the  Marquis 

1  Anquez,  208,  209. 

2  "  La  presence  des  deputes  generaux  aupres  du  roi  a  de  grandes  utilites,  en 
ce  qu'ils  entretiennent  la  liaison  avec  notre  prince,  sollicitent  l'execution  des 
choses  promises,  observent  la  bonne  ou  mauvaise  foi  dont  on  y  procede  et  en 
donnent  avis  partout,  re^oivent  et  font  retentir  les  griefs  qui  peuvent  survenir 
d'heure  a,  autre,  et,  es  cas  inopines,  ont  seuls  vocation  de  donner  conseil  a 
toutes  nos  Eglises  en  general,  lesquelles,  sans  ces  deux  yeux,  ne  peuvent 
marcher  qu'a  ttitons  et  vivre  en  tenebres."  Duplessis  Mornay,  May  21,  1620, 
apud  Anquez,  226. 

Vol.  II— 29 


450      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cu.  XV. 

of  Ruvigny  and  his  son,  the  later  Earl  of  Galway,  who  suc- 
cessively held  office  in  the  reign  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  the 
deputies  general  of  the  Huguenots,  with  scarcely  an  exception, 
deserved  well  of  their  constituents,  by  reason  of  their  faith- 
fulness, integrity,  and  enlightened  zeal  for  the  interests  of 
Protestantism. 

The  assembly  of  Sainte  Foy  had  intended  that  another  as- 
sembly, to  be  held  the  next  year,  should  select  the  successors  of 
the  deputies  general  whom  it  had  chosen  ;  but  Henry  had  no 
notion  of  establishing  a  precedent  for  such  annual  convocation.-. 
For  two  years  he  was  deaf  to  all  the  solicitations  that  were  ad- 
dressed to  him,  insisting  that  the  present  deputies  should  con- 
tinue their  functions  without  a  re-election.  When,  at  last,  he 
consented  that  a  political  assembly  of  the  Protestants  should 
be  held  at  Chatellerault,  he  burdened  the  grant  with  unwel- 
The  assembly  come  conditions.  This  was  to  be  the  last  gathering 
raiSt^juiy,"  of  the  kind;  its  numbers  were  to  be  limited  to  two 
members  from  each  province ;  it  must  concern  itself 
only  with  the  election  of  the  deputies  general,  and  take  the 
place  of  the  National  Synod  appointed  for  La  Pochelle ;  v 
of  all,  it  must  admit  to  its  sessions  a  royal  commissioner,  with 
very  evident  designs  upon  the  independence  of  the  deb 
And  when,  late  in  July,  1606,  the  assembly  opened,  M.  de 
Posny,  known  later  as  the  Duke  of  Sully,  appeared  as  such 
commissioner,  with  instructions  that  revealed  fully  the  mon- 
arch's attitude  toward  his  Protestant  subjects.  They  would  be 
permitted  to  make  no  new  demands,  to  elect  no  protector  of 
their  churches — the  king  claimed  that  title  as  his  own  exclusive 
right.  As  to  their  deputies  general,  the  assembly  might  either 
choose  twelve  candidates,  of  whom  the  king  would  take  six,  two 
by  two,  to  reside  near  his  person  successively  for  two  years :  or. 
each  province  might  choose  the  two  deputies  general  in  si; 
sion  ;  or,  if  neither  plan  pleased  them,  they  might  elect  six 
persons  at  once,  of  whom  the  king  would  take  two  to  fill  the 
places  of  the  present  incumbents. 

Meanwhile,  Rosny  was  allowed  to  hold  forth  hopes  to  the 
Protestants  that,  if  they  were  moderate  in  their  claims  for 
money,  his  majesty  would  prolong  the  term  during  which  they 


1607.  AFTER   THE   EDICT.  451 

might  retain  their  cautionary  cities  beyond  the  eight  years  stip- 
ulated at  Nantes.1 

The  assembly  of  Chatellerault,  fearful  lest  the  king  might 
remain  constant  in  his  resolution  not  to  bring  his  Huguenot 
subjects  together  again  in  a  similar  convocation,  took  good  care 
before  adjourning  to  provide  against  that  contingency  by  order- 
ing that,  unless  an  assembly  should  be  called  for  the  year  1607, 
the  National  Synod  be  charged  with  the  duty  of  electing  the 
deputies  general  and  with  the  consideration  of  the  other  exter- 
nal interests  of  the  churches.  The  plan  was  not  displeasing  to 
the  king,  who,  accordingly,  when  the  eighteenth  of  the  French 
Protestant  National  Synods  met  in  La  Rochelle  (March  and 
April,  1607),  ordered  it  to  make  choice  of  six  persons  for  the 
office  of  deputy  general,  from  whom  he  would  himself  select 
two  to  serve  for  three  years.2  But  true  to  the  Huguenot  tra- 
ditions, which  drew  a  clear  line  of  demarcation  between  the 
prerogatives  of  the  national  synod  and  those  of  the  political 
assembly,  the  Synod  of  La  Rochelle  showed  no  inclination  to 
intrude  of  its  own  accord,  or  to  be  forced  by  others, 

The  Svnod  of  .  /  ' 

La  Rocheiie,    to  encroach  upon  the  functions  ot  the  sister  bodv.    It 

KiOT.  v 

did  indeed  make  choice  of  deputies  general,  but  only 
two  in  number,  alleging  that  the  instructions  of  none  of  its 
members  made  mention  of  more.  It  declined  to  take  the  re- 
sponsibility of  prolonging  their  term  of  office,  and  begged  the 
king  to  authorize  the  convocation  of  a  political  assembly,  as 
being  the  only  body  which  could  lawfully  take  cognizance  of 
any  modification  either  in  the  number  or  in  the  term  of  service 
of  the  deputies.3 

This  was  the  old  Huguenot  spirit,  keen  in  its  sense  of  justice, 
too  conscientious  in  the  defence  of  right,  too  frank  in  speech, 
too  republican,  if  we  may  say  so,  to  please  a  king  who  was  dis- 
posed to  have  his  own  way,  or  courtiers  who  were  well  inclined 

1  See  the  royal  instructions  to  Rosny,  dated  July  3  and  4,  1605,  in  the 
Memoires  de  Sully  ((Economies  royales),  iv.  c.  52,  pp.  424-432,  of  the  edition 
of  1063.     Also,  Anquez,  214-217. 

2  "Brevet  du  Roi,"  Decemher  29,  1606,  in  Aymon,  Tous  les  Synodes,  i. 
343.  344. 

3  Acts  of  the  National  Synod  of  La  Rochelle,  ibid.,  i.  342-350. 


452      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XV. 

to  let  him  have  it.  No  wonder  that  Henry  positively  declined 
to  accept  Yillarnoul,  son-in-law  of  Duplessis  Mornay,  and 
Mirande,  the  synod's  candidates,  and  declared  that  he  would 
continue  to  recognize  the  late  deputies  general,  Odet  de  La 
None,  son  of  the  champion  of  the  Iron  Arm,  and  Ducros.  But 
neither  of  the  gentlemen  whom  the  king  thus  honored  consid- 
ered himself  to  be  authorized  to  act  for  his  fellow  religionists. 
Meanwhile  the  great  body  of  the  Protestants  asserted  the  va- 
lidity of  the  election  of  their  successors,  and  called  for  the  con- 
vocation of  a  political  assembly  to  solve  the  knotty  matter.  In 
,    a     the  end  such  an  assembly  was  summoned  to  meet  at 

Assembly  of  ,  J 

jargeaux,       Jargeaux  m  the  autumn  of  the  year  1608.     It  con- 

1608.  °  * 

sented  to  meet  the  views  of  the  monarch  by  the  selec- 
tion of  six  candidates,  and  of  these  Henry  had  the  good  grace 
to  choose  the  very  same  men  for  deputies  general  whom  he  had 
declined  when  their  names  were  presented  to  him  alone.1 

The  assembly  of  Jargeaux  was  the  last  of  the  political  con- 
vocations of  the  Huguenots  during  this  reign. 

Meanwhile  the  more  strictly  ecclesiastical  activity  of  the 
French  Protestants  had  never  been  greater  than  during  the  pe- 
riod now  under  consideration.  Of  the  nineteen  national  syn- 
ods held  by  the  Huguenots  up  to  the  date  of  the  death  of 
Henry  the  Fourth,  not  less  than  seven  fell  within  the  compass 
of  this  monarch's  reign  ;  and  of  these,  five  belong  to  the  portion 
of  that  reign  which  was  subsequent  to  the  enactment  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes.  During  the  preceding  reigns  the  highest 
representative  body  of  the  Reformed  churches  had  of  necessity 
been  convened  rarely  and  at  irregular  intervals.  The  commo- 
tion consequent  upon  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day 
icompelled  the  persecuted  Huguenots  to  abstain  from  holding 
a  national  synod  for  nearly  six  years  ;  while  the  wars  of  the 
League  introduced  a  break  of  over  eleven  years  between  the 
first  Synod  of  Vitre,  in  May,  1583,  and  the  Synod  of  Mon- 
tauban,  in  June,  1594.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  the  desire, 
long  cherished,  of  regular  and  frequent  periodical  convocations 
was  nearly  realized.     The  national  synods  successively  met,  at 

1  Anquez,  222,  etc. 


1598-1610.  AFTER  THE   EDICT.  453 

Montpellier,  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  May,  1598;  at  Jargeaux,  on 
the  ninth  of  May,  1601  ;  at  Gap,  on  the  first  of  October,  1603 ; 
at  La  Pochelle,  on  the  first  of  March,  1607  ;  and  at  Saint  Mai- 
xent,  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  May,  1609. 

Much  as  the  proceedings  of  these  assemblies  contain  which 
might  concern  the  theologian  or  the  ecclesiastical  antiquary, 
there  is  little  in  the  records  that  need  detain  the  general  reader. 
He  may,  however,  be  interested  in  noticing  the  prominence  given 
to  the  support  of  the  educational  establishments — to  which  our 
attention  will  shortly  be  turned — and  find  a  proof  of  the  zeal  of 
the  Huguenots  in  behalf  of  higher  institutions  of  learning  in 
the  fact  that,  of  the  forty-three  thousand  and  three  hundred 
crowns  granted  by  Henry  the  Fourth  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
Reformed  churches,  they  instantly  appropriated  one-thirteenth 
part  to  their  universities.1  lie  may  still  further  notice,  as  char- 
acteristic of  the  times,  that  the  Synod  of  Gap  gave  no  uncertain 
sound  as  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Protestant  churches  respecting 
the  papacy,  by  solemnly  reaffirming  their  belief — a  belief  in  at- 
testation of  which  many  of  their  martyrs  had  suffered  a  violent 
death — that  the  Pope  of  Pome  was  properly  identified  with  the 
Antichrist  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Not  only  so,  but  the  same 
assembly  formally  resolved  to  append  to  the  thirty-first  article 
of  the  Confession  of  Faith  a  very  explicit  declaration  to  the 
same  effect,  wherein  the  church  professed  its  conviction  that  the 
Poman  Pontiff  was  the  Son  of  Perdition,  predicted  in  the  Word 
of  God  under  the  emblem  of  the  Harlot  clothed  in  scarlet,  seated 
on  the  seven  hills  of  the  great  city,  and  reigning  over  the  kings 
of  the  earth,  and  uttered  its  confident  expectation  that  the  Lord 
would  consume  him  with  the  spirit  of  His  mouth  and  finally 
destroy  him  with  the  brightness  of  His  coming. 2  The  Synod 
of  La  Pochelle,  in  one  of  its  earlier  sessions,  indorsed  these 
views,  and  fully  sanctioned  the  addition  to  the  Confession  of 
Faith.3  Subsequently,  however,  learning  that  their  action  was 
highly  displeasing  to  the  king,  and  deferring  to  the  judgment 


1  Acts  of  the  Synod  of  Montpellier,  in  Aymon,  Tous  les  Synodes,  i.  225. 

2  Acts  of  the  Synod  of  Gap,  ibid.,  i.  258,'  272. 

3  Acts  of  the  Synod  of  La  Rochelle,  ibid. ,  i.  303. 


454     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XV. 

of  Duplessis  Mornay,  who  urged  a  more  moderate  course,1  the 
synod  receded  in  part  from  its  action.  It  consented  to  suspend 
the  publication  of  the  obnoxious  statement ;  but  it  took  good 
care  to  accompany  the  concession  with  the  express  condition  that 
no  person  be  molested  or  brought  to  trial  for  maintaining  the 
doctrine  in  question,  whether  from  the  pulpit  or  in  written  or 
oral  discussion.  It  stipulated,  furthermore,  that  his  majesty  be 
petitioned  to  take  measures  that  no  person  be  held  to  account 
for  having  printed  the  article  referred  to,  or  for  having  in  his 
possession  copies  of  it  already  issued.2 

While  consenting  to  leave  out  of  their  compendious  state- 
ment of  doctrine  a  declaration  which  might  be  regarded  as  un- 
essential, and  therefore  unnecessary,  the  Huguenots  evidently 
saw  no  prospect  in  the  near  future  of  relief  from  the  necessity 
of  defending  by  controversy  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation. 
So  it  was  that,  acting  on  a  suggestion  coming  from  the  churches  of 

'  ©  Do  O 

Anjou,  the  Synod  of  Saint  Maixent  determined  that  it  was  ex- 
pedient that  certain  persons  be  selected  in  each  province  whose 
special  duty  it  should  be  to  prepare  themselves  upon  certain  par- 
ticular doctrines.  Accordingly  the  entire  field  of  theol<>_ 
controversy  was  mapped  out  and  distributed  geographically,  with 
a  precision  which  was  probably  never  surpassed  elsewhere.  To 
Poitou,  for  instance,  was  assigned  the  task  of  discussing  "The 
Word  of  God,  Written  and  Unwritten;"  Saintonge  was  to 
qualify  itself  to  treat  of  "The Church  and  the  Councils ; "  Up- 
per Languedoc  was  intrusted  with  the  settlement  of  "  The  Sac- 
raments in  general,  and  the  True  Sacraments  in  particular." 
To  each  of  fourteen  ecclesiastical  provinces  its  own  theme 
was   assigned ;    in  each,   suitable    persons,    carefully    selected, 


1  "  Et  a  la  verite  messieurs,  nous  estant  libre  d'en  dire  ce  que  nous  en  sen- 
tons,  et  en  nos  presches  et  en  nos  livres,  je  ne  scais  quelle  utilite  nous  peult 
revenir  de  rechercher  quelque  chose  plus  oultre,  et  estime  que  sans  aulcung 
prejudice  de  nostre  profession  et  doctrine,  nous  pouvions  nous  abstenir  d'en 
imprimer  et  publier  larticle  en  nostre  confession,  et  en  ceste  chose  indifferente 
de  soi,  donner  contentement  a  samajeste,  puis  niesme  qu'au  regard  des  affaires 
elle  y  recognoist  de  la  difference."  Menioires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  x.  198- 
200. 

2  Acts  of  the  Synod  of  La  Rochelle,  Aynion,  i.  314. 


1598—1610.  AFTER   THE   EDICT.  455 

were  to  hold  themselves  reach'  to  combat  for  the  views  of 
the  Ileformed  Churches,  within  a  restricted  circle  of  doctrine, 
whensoever  they  might  be  called  upon  to  enter  into  dispute 
with  their  adversaries.1 

Of  the  disputes  within  the  bosom  of  the  Reformed  Church, 
the  less  conspicuous  controversy  of  Piscator,  and  the  nas- 
cent controversy  respecting  the  views  promulgated  b}r  Armin- 
ius,  soon  to  assume  far  wider  importance,  I  shall  not  speak 
here.  Slight  as  were  the  proportions  which  these  discussions 
had  as  yet  attained,  they  were  sufficient  to  awaken  the  appre- 
hension of  Duplessis  Mornay,  a  firm  believer  in  the  propriety 
of  sinking  all  minor  questions,  in  view  of  the  great  struggle 
confronting  Protestantism  entire.  u  I  beg  you,"  he  wrote  to 
La  Eoue,  "  employ  here  your  own  prudence  and  the  authority 
of  the  Duke  of  Bouillon,  that  there  be  not  engendered  a  differ- 
ence among  us  for  a  doctrine  which  is  either  identical  or  but 
little  different.  You  see  where  we  already  are  in  the  matter  of 
Arminius.  Our  [Roman  Catholic]  adversaries  concede  us  sub- 
stantial matters  in  order  to  draw  us  to  them,  but  we  cannot  give 
up  matters  that  are  immaterial  in  order  to  remain  united  with 
one  another.  Would  to  God  that  we  were  willing  to  know 
nothing  save  Christ  crucified  for  us,  rejecting  everything  op- 
posed to  this  and  having  no  curiosity  respecting  what  is  beyond 
it."  2 

Meanwhile  some  theological  discussions  had  arisen  of  more 

than  usual  interest,  even  to  the  general  reader.    In  one  of  these 

the  character  of  Henry  the  Fourth  had  shown  to  little 

Papal  and  ,  ,    ',  ,  -^ 

Jesuit  innu-  advantage.  Having  maae  his  peace  with  Rome,  the 
king  was  indisposed  to  forfeit,  or  even  to  endanger,  the 
rewards  of  his  abjuration  by  tolerating  in  France  any  attacks 
upon  the  Roman  Church  or  its  pontiff,  which  might  furnish 
subject  for  complaint  to  the  Jesuits,  to  Clement  the  Eighth, 
or  to  his  successor,  Paul  the  Fifth.  He  therefore  entered  up- 
on a  course  of  conciliation,  including  the  recall  of  the  Jesuits 


1  Acts  of  the  National  Synod  of  Saint  Maixent,  Aymon,  i.  376,  377. 

2  Letter  to  La  Noue,  February  22,  1608,  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  x. 
222. 


456     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XV. 

to  France,  the  choice  of  Father  Cotton,  of  that  order,  as  royal 
confessor,  and  the  overthrow,  through  the  joint  influence  of 
the  confessor  and  of  other  members  of  the  same  order,  of  the 
stately  monument,  or  pyramid,  erected  in  front  of  the  main 
entrance  to  the  Palais  de  Justice,  and  on  the  ruins  of  the 
house  of  the  miscreant's  father,  to  the  everlasting  execration 
of  the  crime  of  Jean  Chastel.1 

In  1600  Henry  was  particularly  sensitive,  because  of  the  fact 
that  the  plans  he  had  for  some  time  been  pursuing  in  respect 
to  his  marriage  were  well  under  way  to  realization.  His  efforts 
to  obtain  a  divorce  from  Margaret  of  Yalois,  the  hated  bride 
whose  nuptials  had  been  graced  by  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's Day,  had  been  crowned  with  success.  The  commission 
appointed  by  the  pope  had  pronounced  the  marriage, 
divorce  and  contracted  twenty-eight  years  before,  void  from  the 
beginning,  upon  such  grounds  as  the  Roman  curia 
has  rarely  been  at  a  loss  to  discover  whenever  policy  or  interest 
has  rendered  it  advisable  so  to  do.'J 

The  king  was  in  the  midst  of  his  preparations  for  his  mar- 
riage with  Maria  de'  Medici,  daughter  of  the  late  Grand  Duke  of 
Tuscany.  It  was  at  this  inopportune  time  that  the  king's  notice 
was  particularly  directed  to  the  recent  publication  of  a  work 
composed  by  Duplessis  Mornay,  as  the  result  of  no  little  labor 
and  research,  having  for  its  title  "The  Institution,  Usage,  and 
Doctrine  of  the  Holy  Sacrament  of  the  Eucharist  in  the  Ancient 


1  The  curious  may  find,  in  the  tenth  volume  of  the  translation  of  De  Thou, 
published  at  the  Hague  in  1740,  pp.  26  and  following,  a  full  description  of  the 
monument,  with  its  inscriptions,  and  a  large  and  authentic  representation  of  its 
appearance.  The  "pyramid,"  in  point  of  fact,  was  only  an  ohelisk  constitut- 
ing the  uppermost  part  of  the  structure. 

2  For  the  reasons,  see  De  Thou,  ix.  (bk.  123)  317,  and  the  correspondence  of 
Cardinal  d'Ossat  from  Rome,  in  vol.  ii.  of  his  Memoires.  Not  to  speak  of  the 
circumstance  that  there  was  natural  relationship  between  the  parties — they 
were  second  cousins,  for  Margaret  of  Angouleme,  Henry's  grandmother,  was  tin- 
sister  of  Francis  L,  Margaret  of  Valois'  grandfather — there  was  spiritual  rela- 
tionship also,  inasmuch  as  Henry  II.,  the  bride's  father,  had  acted  as  godfather 
to  the  groom  at  his  baptism.  True,  Gregory  XIII.  had  granted  a  dispensation 
after  the  marriage  had  taken  place,  but  Margaret  of  Valois  declared  that  she 
had  never  willingly  accepted  it. 


1600.  AFTER  THE  EDICT.  457 

Church ;  as  well  as  how,  when,  and  by  what  degrees  the  Mass 
was  introduced  in  its  place."  The  general  theme  was  no  novel 
Dnpiessis  one  ;  for  the  question  regarding  the  Lord's  Supper 
tSkonthe     and  the  Poman  Catholic  doctrine  of  Transubstantia- 

tion  had  been  a  favorite  article  of  controversy  for  not 
much  less  than  a  century.  But  the  book  attracted  special  at- 
tention at  this  time,  first,  because  it  was  written  with  uncommon 
elegance  of  style  ;  next,  because  it  transferred  the  ground  of 
dispute  from  the  Holy  Scriptures,  where  it  was  currently  sup- 
posed that  the  papal  party  had  been  worsted,  to  the  writings  of 
the  Fathers,  where  that  party  flattered  itself  that  its  position 
was  impregnable  ;  and,  most  of  all,  because  the  work  emanated 
from  the  very  neighborhood  of  the  throne.1  The  author,  dis- 
daining to  take  refuge  under  a  pseudonym,  or  to  attempt  even 
partial  concealment  of  his  identity  behind  the  thin  veil  of 
initials,  had  boldly  announced  himself  as  "Messire  Philippe 
de  Mornay,  Lord  of  Plessis-Marly,  Councillor  of  the  King  in 
his  Council  of  State."  The  beauties  of  the  style  might  have 
been  ignored  ;  churchmen  might  have  affected  to  look  another 
way  when  an  inconvenient  appeal  was  made  to  patristic  au- 
thority ;  but  some  notice  must  perforce  be  taken  of  the  auda- 
cious champion  of  the  Reformation,  who  had  so  distinctly 
proclaimed  the  fact  that  he  stood  high  in  favor  with  Henry 
the  Fourth  some  years  after  his  abjuration.  The  denunciation 
of  the  writer  and  of  his  work  from  the  pulpits  of  Paris  and  the 
provinces,  the  censures  of  the  Sorbonne,  and  the  order  that  the 
book  should  be  consigned  to  the  flames,  concern  us  here  as  little 
as  do  the  attempts  made  in  print  to  refute  its  statements.  The 
capital  point  was  that  Duplessis  Mornay  had  committed  the  un- 
Henry's         pardonable  sin  against  the  king  of  attacking  the  Poman 

See  at  a  moment  when  it  was  particularly  important 
for  Henry  to  have  the  support  of  the  Poman  See.  His  majesty 
was  as  furious  againt  Duplessis  Mornay  as  he  was  indignant 


1  "  La  beaute  du  stile,"  says  De  Thou,  ix.  (bk.  123)  326,  "  le  faisoit  recher- 
cher  de  tout  le  monde,  et  lire  avec  d'autant  plus  d'avidite,  que  Tauteur  appu- 
yoit  son  sentiment  de  l'autorite  des  peres  grecs  et  latins,  et  mesne  de  quelques. 
theologiens  scliolastiques." 


458      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cii.  XV. 

with  the  National  Synod  of  Gap  for  having  ventured  to  declare 
that  the  pope  was  Antichrist  and  the  Man  of  Sin.  It  availed 
nothing  to  the  synod  that  Henry  had  himself,  when  simple  king 
of  Navarre,  subscribed,  if  not  actually  composed,  letters  to  be 
carried  by  Segur  to  the  Protestant  monarchs  of  the  North, 
wherein  the  Roman  pontiff  was  expressly  designated  by  the 
former  of  these  uncomplimentary  appellations.  Henry's  mem- 
ory of  letters  written  fifteen  or  eighteen  years  before  was  as 
conveniently  faulty  as  his  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  the  Re- 
formed Churches  of  France  had  always  held  and  proclaimed  the 
view  he  now  chose  to  reprobate.  It  availed  as  little  to  Dnplessis 
Mornay  that,  to  use  the  king's  own  words  uttered  immediately 
after  the  incidents  next  to  be  related,  his  majesty  "had  never 
had  a  better  or  greater  servant;"  that  "through  his  conduct" 
the  king,  "after  being,  as  it  were,  banished  to  the  Pyrenees,  had 
attained  the  kingdom  ;  "  that  Dnplessis  Mornay  "  had  had  a 
chief  part  in  this  great  and  glorious  fortune.''  Past  favors 
counted  for  nothing  in  Henry's  estimation,  as  compared  with 
present  advantage.  The  pope  must  be  vindicated,  the  papal 
honor  must  be  avenged,  even  at  the  expense  of  the  most  faith- 
ful, trusty,  and  useful  statesman  that  had  ever  sat  at  the  king's 
council  board.  Nor  did  Henry  attempt  to  hide  his  resentment 
from  its  object.  With  a  countenance  very  different  from  the 
benignant  visage  he  had  been  used  to  turn  upon  him,  he  told 
Dnplessis  :  "You  could  not  have  done  me  a  greater  displeasure 
than  to  attack  the  pope,  to  whom  I  am  more  obliged  than  to 
my  own  father."  a  He  made  no  account  of  Dnplessis  Mornay'a 
reply  that  he  had  attacked,  not  the  pope,  but  the  papal  system  ; 
that  this  was  permitted  by  the  royal  edicts ;  indeed,  that  there 
was  nothing  more  common  than  this  in  all  the  states  that  suf- 
fered  two  different  religions  to  exist  side  by  side.3  Henry  was 
resolved  to  punish  the  Huguenot  nobleman  in  a  signal  manner, 
and  the  opportunity  soon  came,  or,  rather,  was  made. 

Informed  that  the  king  had  more  than  once  asserted  that  all 
that  Duplessis  Mornay  alleged  on  the  authority  of  the  Fathers 


1  Vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  272. 

2  Ibid.,  265.  "   s  Ibid.,  ubi  supra. 


1600.  AFTER   THE  EDICT.  459 

was  false,  the  latter  replied  by  declaring  that  his  majesty  could 

not  confer  a  greater  obligation  upon  him  than  by  appointing 

commissioners  before  whom  he  would  be  called  upon  to  verify 

all  the  quotations  from  one  end  to  the  other  of  his  book.     This 

was  all  that  was  wanted.     The  king  summoned  to  him  David 

du  Perron,  Bishop  of  Evreux,  and  that  versatile  controversialist 

promptly  took  up   the    gauntlet   Duplessis   had    thrown  down, 

promising;  that  he  would  point  out  five  hundred  flagrant 
The  Bishop       J;       .  y  v  .  & . 

of  Evreux's     lalsmcations,  by  actual  count  and  without  exaggeration, 

charge.  J  °.& 

and  of  such  a  kind  as  to  be  detected  by  a  simple  in- 
spection, on  opening  the  book,  and  without  entering  upon  the 
determination  of  the  meaning.1  Alarmed  at  the  prospect  of 
another  religious  conference,  which  might,  for  aught  he  knew, 
be  as  pernicious  to  the  cause  he  represented  as  had  been  the 
Colloquy  of  Poissy,  under  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Ninth,  the 
papal  nuncio  came  in  much  consternation  to  Henry  and  en- 
treated him  to  avoid  a  dangerous  experiment.  lie  might  have 
spared  himself  the  trouble.  The  king  had  no  intention  of  al- 
lowing the  discussion  to  enter  into  the  merits  of  the  respective 
doctrines  of  Roman  Catholicism  and  Protestantism,  and  his  as- 
surances removed  the  prelate's  uneasiness* 

The  conference  was  appointed  for  the  royal  palace  at  Fon- 
tainebleau.  On  his  arrival  Duplessis  Mornay  was  not  left  long 
in  doubt  respecting  the  treatment  he  might  expect.  His  over- 
throw seemed  to  be  a  foregone  conclusion.  The  bishop  had 
been  consulted  on  every  point,  and  already  occupied  the  attitude 
of  a  prospective  victor.  The  place,  the  time,  the  mode  of  the 
conference,  the  very  commissioners  to  whom  the  decision  was 
to  be  referred,  all  had  been  settled ;  but  the  man  most  nearly 
interested  in  the  matter  had  not  been  requested  to  give  his 
opinion  respecting  the  arrangements.  Henry  showed  no  in- 
clination to  allow  his  old  Huguenot  servant  any  opportunity  to 
speak  to  him  in  private,  and  when  at  last  he  could  not  avoid 
granting  him  audience,  did  not  attempt  to  conceal  his  animosity. 

1  "Cinq  cens  faussetes  enormes,  de  conte  fait  et  sans  hyperbole,  telles 
qu'elles  se  pouvoient  juger  par  la  seule  vue,  a  l'ouverture  du  livre,  sans  entrer 
au  jugement  du  sens." 


460      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XV. 

Duplessis  Mornay  addressed  liim  with  his  accustomed  frank- 
ness. "  Time  was,  Sire,"  said  he,  "when  you  talked  of  reform- 
ing the  Church,  in  case  God  should  place  you  in  peaceable  pos- 
Dupiessisand  sessi°n  of  this  state,  and  you  commanded  me  to  medi- 
theking.  tate  upon  the  means  of  reforming  it.  I  thought  of 
none  more  appropriate  than  to  portray  in  the  eyes  of  your  peo- 
ple the  ancient  form  and  belief  of  the  Christian  Church.  To 
accomplish  this  has  been  the  sole  end  of  my  book  on  the  Eu- 
charist. It  was  not  ambition.  I  had  known  the  world  too  well 
to  imagine  that  I  should  succeed  by  any  such  way.  Yet,  Sire.  I 
am  so  unfortunate  that  the  enemies  of  truth  and  my  enemies 
have  persuaded  you  that  my  book  is  full  of  falsifications.  I  had 
promised  myself  that  the  straightforwardness  of  my  actions, 
during  twenty  years  and  upward  of  faithful  service,  must  be  a 
warrant  with  your  majesty  for  the  truth  of  my  words.  This 
just  grief  therefore  stung  my  heart  to  the  quick,  and  led  me  to 
request  your  majesty  to  appoint  commissioners  to  examine  from 
one  end  to  the  other,  and  leaf  by  leaf,  the  passages  alleged  by 
me  from  the  holy  Fathers.  Xow,  Sire,  had  the  Bishop  of  Ev- 
reux  had  the  same  object  as  I,  he  also  would  have  pursued  the 
same  plan.  This  examination  might  have  been  carried  on  both 
noiselessly  and  advantageously  ;  since  your  majesty  would  have 
had  no  other  interest  than  the  truth  itself,  and  would  conse- 
quently have  apportioned  the  sun  equally  between  us.  As  for 
the  wind's  being  more  favorable  for  him,  I  care  little  for  that.1 
Now  that  the  bishop  has  made  a  public  matter  of  it,  and  has  in- 
terested the  papal  nuncio  and  the  entire  Romish  Church,  it  is 
no  longer  the  same  thing.  Your  majesty,  on  the  contrary,  is 
interested  on  behalf  of  his  state  to  make  this  action  succeed  to 
their  satisfaction,  at  whatever  price  it  may  he.  And  thus  it  is 
my  misfortune  to  have  my  master  no  longer  as  an  umpire,  but 
as  a  party  to  the  suit.  Now,  Sire,  were  my  life,  or  even  my  lienor 
alone,  at  stake,  I  would  gladly  lay  them  down  for  your  service.' 


1  It  will  occur  to  every  reader  that,  even  so  late  as  in  the  warfare  of  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries,  great  stress  was  laid  upon  the  double  ad- 
vantage of  having  the  sun's  rays  and  the  wind  in  the  faces  of  antagonists. 

2  "  J'en  feroy  littiere  pour  vostre  service." 


1600.  AFTER   THE   EDICT.  401 

But  since  I  am  bound  to  the  defence  of  the  truth,  where 
the  honor  of  God  is  at  stake,  I  very  humbly  beseech  your  maj- 
esty to  pardon  me  if  I  seek  for  the  just  and  reasonable  means 
of  guaranteeing  it  against  those  measures  which  are  proposed  to 
you  for  the  purpose  of  supplanting  it."  '  How  warmly  the  king- 
responded  to  these  generous  words,  by  openly  espousing  the 
pope's  quarrel,  and  resenting  Duplessis  Mornay's  alleged  attack 
upon  him,  we  saw  but  a  moment  ago.  Henry  even  declined  to 
read  the  petition  handed  to  him  by  the  Huguenot,  wherein 
were  set  forth  his  view  of  what  would  be  a  just  procedure,  and 
turned  it  over  to  the  chancellor,  with  the  direction  to  bring  the 
parties  face  to  face  as  soon  as  possible.  "  Very  well,  Sire,"  ex- 
claimed Duplessis  Mornay,  "  since  so  it  pleases  God,  I  see  that 
the  game  is  settled.  You  will  be  made  to  condemn  the  Truth 
within  four  walls,  and  God  will  give  me  the  grace,  if  I  live,  to 
make  it  resound  to  the  four  corners  of  the  world."  2 

It  is  needless  to  rehearse  every  step  in  an  incident  so  iniqui- 
tous and  so  disgraceful  to  the  king,  so  honorable  to  the  vic- 
es o" 

tim  of  his  spite.  The  bishop  who  had  promised  to  point  out 
five  hundred  falsified  passages  in  the  book  on  the  Eucharist 
was  permitted  to  narrow  down  the  number  to  be  examined  to 
The  sixty  sixty.  One  night,  at  an  hour  past  midnight,  the  list 
was  handed  to  Duplessis  Mornay,  with  the  references  as 
briefly  noted  as  decency  would  allow.  At  two  o'clock  the  copies 
of  the  Fathers  belonging  to  the  Bishop  of  Evreux  were  brought 
to  the  Huguenot  in  his  room.  At  six  o'clock  the  bishop  sent  for 
them  to  be  returned.  In  those  four  hours  Duplessis  Mornay  was 
expected,  with  his  feeble  eyesight,  to  examine  and  verify  the 
whole  sixty  passages,  in  editions  of  the  ancient  authors,  in  some 
cases  different  from  those  which  he  had  made  use  of  in  writing 
his  book.  In  point  of  fact  he  had  only  time  to  compare  nine- 
teen out  of  the  sixty.  At  eight  o'clock,  apparently  for  no  other 
reason  than  lest  he  might  have  too  much  leisure  to  prepare  his 


1  Vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  264,  265. 

2  "Et  bien,  Sire,  puisqu'il  plaist  ainsi  a  Dieu,  je  voy  la  partie  faite  ;  on 
vous  fera  condamner  la  Verite  entre  quatre  murailles,  et  Dieu  me  fera  la  grace, 
si  je  vis,  de  la  faire  retentir  aux  quatre  coins  du  monde."     Ibid.,  266. 


462      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cji.  XV 

vindication,  he  was  summoned  into  the  king's  presence.  The 
conference  was  not  to  be  held  until  after  noon.  His  may 
had  lost  none  of  his  determination  to  break  down  his  Huguenot 
follower.  He  said  Duplessis  Mornay  ought  to  have  examined 
the  whole  sixty  passages  ;  it  might  be  he  had  selected  the  nine- 
teen that  were  most  advantageous  to  him. 

So  it  was  that,  harassed  and  robbed  of  his  rest,   Duplr 
Mornay  was  to  enter  into  the  conference.     Truth  to  say,  there 
was  another  person  also  who  had  passed  a  sleepless  night, 
uneasy  was  Henry  lest,  after  all,  the  result  might  be  different 
from  what  he  had  promised  the  pope  that  he  scarcely  cli 
his  eyes.     M.  de  Lomenie,  who  slept  in  his  majesty's  room,  ob- 
served the   circumstance.     "It  must  be,"  said   he,  "  that  Tonr 
majesty  has  this  matter  strangely  at  heart.     On  the  eve  of  Cou- 
tras,  of  Arques,  and  of  Ivry,  three  battles  in  which  our  all  was  at 
stake,  your  majesty  was  not  so  anxious."     The  king   admitted 
that  it  was  so. 

On  Thursday,  the  fourth  of  May,  1600,  at  one  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  the  conference  took  place,  in  the  "  Salle  du  Bain  "  of 
The  Fontaine-  ^ne  castle  of  Fontainebleau.     The  king  and  his  entire 
encT STyT    com*t    were   present.     The   commissioners  had 
lfioo.  chosen,  three  as  Roman  Catholics — De  Thou,  Pithon, 

and  Martin — and  two  as  Protestants — Casaubon  and  Du  Frene 
Canaye.     Chancellor  Bellievre  was  to  preside.     Much 

The  commis-  J  I 

sioners.  }ias  foeen  said  0f  the  unfairness  of  the  selection.  Mar- 

tin, the  king's  physician,  is  reported  to  have  been  a  man  distin- 
guished for  violence  rather  than  moderation  ;  I  )u  Frene  ( 'anaye 
to  have  been  a  Protestant  only  in  name,  since  he  had  already 
promised  to  be  "converted,"  and  having  come  to  court  for  that 
purpose  was  naturally  anxious  to  distinguish  himself  by  some 
good  service  done  to  the  cause  he  was  about  to  espouse  ;  and 
Casaubon,  eminent  humanist  as  he  was,  had  as  little  experience 
in  the  matters  he  was  to  be  called  upon  to  decide,  as  practice  in 
the  ways  of  courts.1     As  to  the  estimable  De  Thou,  and  his  no 


1  The  suggestion  of  Benoist  that  Casaubon  was  wavering  in  his  attachn.- 
his  religion  appears  to  he  based  upon  cruel  suspicion,  and  to  he  an  unwarrant- 
able deduction  from  the  well-known  moderation  and  irenic  tendencies  of  the 


16C0,  AFTER   THE   EDICT.  463 

less  respectable  friend  Pithou,  both  of  them  men  of  probity, 
their  office  was  not  of  their  seeking,  and  De  Thou,  in  particular, 
had  begged  to  be  excused  from  its  discharge.  But  he  had  been 
informed,  on  the  king's  behalf,  that  he  must  remember  that  he 
was  already  looked  upon  with  suspicion  by  many  because  he 
had  had  a  hand  in  drawing  up  the  provisions  of  the  Edict  of 
Xantes,  and  that,  if  he  declined  on  the  present  occasion  to  act 
as  a  commissioner,  he  must  expect  never  again  to  be  invited  to 
discharge  any  important  function.  It  matters  little,  however, 
how  far  these  statements  are  true  or  false.  The  conduct  of  the 
commissioners  may  be  fully  explained  by  the  timidity  or  servility 
of  gownsmen — lawyers,  judges,  and  professors— which  evidenced 
itself  on  many  occasions  during  the  reigns  of  the  last  Yalois 
kino-s  and  during  the  rei^n  now  under  consideration,  and  which 
was  to  reappear  far  too  often  under  succeeding  monarchs  down 
to  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  There  were  few  men  on  the 
piianc  of  bench  who  dared  to  make  a  determined  resistance  to 
the  expressed  or  implied  will  of  the  king.  The  ma- 
jority were  overawed  ;  they  bowed  their  heads  to  the  royal 
mandate,  reluctantly,  perhaps,  and  blaming  him  in  their  hearts, 
but  none  the  less  obediently.  Parliament  might  indeed  show 
strenuous  resistance  when  its  privileges  were  endangered,  or 
when  the  Roman  Catholic  supremacy  was  threatened,  or  when 
so  insidious  a  body  as  the  Society  of  Jesus  attempted  to  en- 
trench itself  in  France  to  the  prejudice  of  University  not  less 
than  episcopal  authority.  But  of  an  honest  resistance  made  by 
a  judicial  body  to  the  condemnation   of  any  man  whom  the 


scholar.  His  "  Epliemerides,"  of  which  the  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de  l'his- 
toire  du  rrotestantisme  francais,  has  given  some  extracts  in  translation,  are 
an  unimpeachable  evidence  of  his  simple  and  unaffected  piety.  It  is  an  in- 
teresting coincidence  that  an  entry  in  this  private  diary,  made  on  Sunday  the 
lGth  of  April,  a  little  over  a  fortnight  before  he  took  part  in  the  conference 
of  Fontainebleau,  testifies  to  his  admiration  for  Duplessis  Mornay  and  for 
the  very  hook  upon  which  he  was  to  pass  judgment.  l'16th  day  before  the 
Calends  of  May.  To-day,  Sunday,  I  did  not  attend  divine  worship,  unhappy 
man  that  I  am  !  But  I  spent  a  part  of  the  day  in  reading,  for  my  edification, 
the  book  written  by  Monsieur  Duplessis  on  the  Lord's  Supper  and  the  Mass ; 
I  even  passed  a  good  part  of  the  day  with  this  great  man.  May  God  preserve 
him  to  us,  as  well  as  such  men  as  resemble  him."     Bulletin,  ii.  257. 


464      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE     Oh.  XV. 

crown  desired  to  crush,  there  seems  not  to  be  an  example  that 
can  be  alleged  in  France  during  the  sixteenth  century.  Chris- 
topher de  Thou,  father  of  the  historian  and  the  commissioner  at 
Fontainebleau,  was  not  worse  than  his  associate  judges  ;  yet  not 
only  did  he  vote  to  condemn  the  Prince  of  Conde  to  death  in 
the  last  days  of  Francis  the  Second,  in  obedience  to  the  known 
desire  of  the  government,1  but  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Ninth 
he  went  to  the  length  of  congratulating  the  king  on  his  dissimu- 
lation at  the  massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew's  Day,  and  laud- 
ing the  royal  prudence  in  bearing  long  with  insults  and  at 
last  crushing  a  dangerous  conspiracy.2  As  for  the  chancellor, 
chancellor  Pomponne  de  Bellievre,  he  was  the  same  man,  who, 
Beiiievre.  though  he  had  fawned  upon  Admiral  Gaspard  de  Co- 
ligny  when  alive,3  had  the  effrontery,  immediately  after  the  hero's 
assassination,  to  declare  to  the  Swiss,  to  whom  he  had  been  sent 
on  a  mission  of  falsehood  and  deception,  that  the  admiral  v. 
vile  conspirator,  a  man  "  who  notoriously  supported  in  his  suite 
and  at  his  call  more  murderers  than  were  to  be  found  in  all  the 
rest  of  the  kingdom,"  4  a  man  who  attracted  strangers  to  him  by 
a  simulation  of  probity,  honesty,  and  justice,  but  in  himself  was 
only  a  compound  of  "  malice,  rapine,  avarice,  and  injustice." 
Needless  to  say  that  the  assassin,  Maurevel,  who  shot  at  Coligny 
from  behind  a  lattice,  was  a  high-spirited  gentleman,  driven  t<> 
the  verge  of  desperation  by  the  admiral's  repeated  acts  of  in- 
iquity, a  much-injured  hero  who  was  resolved  to  sell  his  life  as 
dear  as  possible.5 

With   so   pliable   a  chancellor   to   preside,  there    was   little 


1  Rise  of  tlie  Huguenots,  i.  438-440. 

2  Ibid.,  ii.  483. 

3  See  Memoires  de  l'estat  de  France  soubs  Charles  IX.,  apud  Delaborde, 
Francois  de  Chastillon,  397,  etc. 

4  "  Ledit  feu  admiral,  lequel,  comme  chacun  scait  avoit  tousjours  plus  de 
meurtriers  entretenus  a  sa  suite  et  a  son  comuiandement,  qu'il  n'en  demeuroit 
en  tout  le  reste  du  roiaume."     Infra,  393. 

0  Remonstrances  faites  par  le  sieur  de  Bellievre,  conseiller  au  conseil  d'Estat 
et  prive  du  roy  aux  ambassadeurs  de  messieurs  les  treize  cantons  desanciennes 
Ligues  des  haultes  Allemagnes,  en  la  journee  a  Baden  en  Argonne,  le  8e  jour 
de  decembre,  1572.  MS.  Nat.  Lib.,  apud  Delaborde,  Francois  de  Chastillou. 
391-397. 


1600.  AFTER   THE   EDICT.  465 

prospect  that  any  other  result  would  be  reached  than  such 
as  his  majesty  might  choose  to  indicate  to  be  pleasing  to 
him. 

The  chancellor's  introductory  words  once  over,  the  Bishop  of 
Evreux  congratulated  the  king  upon  the  intention  he  had 
Theconfer-  clearly  announced,  not  to  trench  upon  the  preroga- 
ence  opened.    tiveg  Q£  t}ie  cmirch.     Then  Duplessis  Mornay  was 

permitted  to  speak.  lie  professed  his  want  of  solicitude  re- 
specting a  book  which  he  had  written  solely  to  further  that 
reformation  of  the  church  which  was  so  earnestly  desired  by 
all  good  people.  If  the  volume  was  useless  for  that  purpose, 
he  was  not  so  much  attached  to  it  but  that  he  would  burn  it 
with  his  own  hands.  lie  hoped,  however,  that  it  would  be 
fairly  examined,  and  that  his  good  faith  and  diligence  would 
be  recognized.  Still,  it  would  not  be  strange  if  among  five  or 
six  thousand  passages  quoted  from  the  Fathers,  there  should  be 
found  some  wherein  his  eye,  or  his  memory,  or  even  his  judg- 
ment might  have  erred.  Let  the  Doctors  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church  be  examined  with  such  rigor ;  which  one  of  them 
could  be  found  to  stand  the  test  ?  Lastly,  let  it  be  well  under- 
stood that  whatever  might  be  the  issue,  it  concerned  him  alone, 
and  could  in  nowise  work  damage  to  the  truth  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  Reformed  Church,  "  which,"  said  he,  "  has  existed  be- 
fore me,  will  exist  after  me,  and,  by  the  grace  of  God,  shall  ever 
exist." 

Then  came  the  examination  of  the  particular  passages  of 
Duplessis  Morn  ay's  book,  a  task  in  which  the  historian  may 
well  be  excused  from  attempting  to  follow  ;  for,  in  the  place  of 
the  multitude  of  flagrant  falsifications  which  Du  Perron  had 
boastfully  declared  himself  able  to  point  out,  he  had  come  down 
to  the  dreary  and  trifling  business  of  noting  paltry  errors,  for 
the  most  part  unworthy  of  serious  consideration,  such  as  even  the 
most  careful  and  conscientious  of  men  might  easily  have  fallen 
into.  Two  passages  respecting  the  doctrine  of  transubstantia- 
tion,  taken  from  Duns  Scotus  and  Durand,  were  first  brought 
up,  in  which  Du  Perron  alleged  that  Duplessis  Mornay  had, 
from  want  of  familiarity  with  scholastic  writers,  taken  the 
"  objection  "  for  the  "  answer."  The  judges  themselves  were 
Vol.  II.— 30 


4:66  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cn.  XV 

at  fault ;  they  had  decided  that  the  matter  called  for  further  ex- 
amination in  one  of  the  cases,  and  were  about  to  say  the  paine 
of  the  other,  when  the  king,  approaching  them,  told  them  they 
must  decide;  whereupon  they  declared  that  Duplessis  Mornay 
had  mistaken  the  objection  for  the  answer.  Id  two  passages 
from  St.  Chrysostom  and  St.  Jerome,  the  bishop  maintained 
that  the  Huguenot  ought  to  have  included  some  lines  more  in 
his  quotations.  Duplessis  Mornay  replied  that  it  would  have 
made  no  difference  in  the  sense  ;  but  the  judges  gave  the  some- 
what tame  verdict  that  "  it  would  have  been  well  to  add  them." 
In  all,  nine  passages  were  examined,  with  similar  results,  before 
the  approach  of  night  interrupted  the  conference.  It  was  to 
have  been  resumed  the  next  morning,  but  Duplessis  Mornay, 
wrorn  out  by  his  anxiety  and  enforced  loss  of  sleep, 

The  confer-  .     ...     .      J.  _  ,J  ...  J 

ence  inter-  and  ill,  besides,  was  m  no  condition  to  go  on.  in 
fact,  for  one  reason  and  another,  the  disputation  was 
never  renewed.  Ko  one  was  very  eager  for  its  resumption. 
The  judges  were  heartily  disgusted  with  their  ungrateful  task. 
Duplessis  Mornay  could  hope  for  no  justice  at  the  hands 
tribunal  so  dominated  by  a  prince  resolved  upon  the  humilia- 
tion of  his  faithful  follower.  The  bishop  had  gained  all  the 
eclat  his  cheap  victory  could  procure  him.  The  king  ha 
cured  his  point.  He  had  done  the  pope  a  service  for  which  he 
Henry's eia-  was  entitled  to  a  suitable  reward.  That  night  be 
tlon*  bade  to  be  served  in  the  Salle  do  Bain  ;  he  would 

sup,  he  said,  on  the  battle-field.  The  conceit  was  certainly  un- 
worthy of  a  great  monarch,  but  more  despicable  was  the  note 
which  he  wrote,  immediately  after  the  conference,  to  the  Duke 
of  Epernon,  for  the  purpose  of  making  capital  with  the  Jesuits 
out  of  his  recent  encounter.  "  My  friend,''  he  wrote  to  the 
man  whom  he  cordially  hated,  "  the  diocese  of  Evreux  has  _ 
the  better  of  the  diocese  of  Saumur,  and  the  gentleness  with 
which  we  have  proceeded  has  taken  away  the  opportunity  for 
any  Huguenot  to  say  that  anything  had  force  but  truth.  The 
bearer,  who  was  present,  will  relate  to  you  how  I  did  won 
Assuredly  this  is  one  of  the  greatest  blows  struck  for  the 
church  of  God  in  a  long  time.  Treading  in  these  footsteps, 
we  shall  bring  back  more  wanderers  from  the  church  in  a  sin- 


1600.  AFTER  THE  EDICT.  467 

gle  year,  than  by  another  way  in  fifty  years."  '  In  the  midst 
of  his  elation,  however,  Henry  took  good  care  to  let  the 
triumphant  Du  Perron  understand  that  it  was  not  the  bishop's 
dialectical  skill  that  had  won  the  day.  "  Let  us  confess  the 
truth,"  said  he  to  him,  "  that  the  good  cause  had  good  need  of 
help."  2  As  for  Duplessis  Mornay,  the  victim  of  a  prearranged 
plot  for  his  overthrow,  he  wrote  calmly,  though  feelingly,  of 
the  event :  "  I  do  not  see  that,  in  the  case  of  Luther,  the  Em- 
peror Charles  resorted  to  such  a  procedure,  though  his  cause 
was  then,  if  at  any  time,  odious  and  altogether  new  and  unsup- 
ported by  public  edict.  Yet  Luther  was  listened  to  with  kind- 
ness, and  was  admitted  to  confer  without  fraud.  Albeit  he  was 
a  man  who  had  done  no  service  to  the  emperor,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  appeared  to  be  doing  him  many  ill  offices ;  whereas, 
of  the  fifty  years  I  have  attained,  I  have  given  my  king  the 
twenty -five  best  years,  and  in  these  twenty-five,  fifty  lives."  3 
The  Huguenot  statesman  may  have  been  betrayed  into  some 
mistakes  in  the  composition  of  his  book  ;  he  may  very  likely,  as 
Sully  would  have  us  believe,  have  made  a  wTeak  defence,  har- 
assed by  his  enemies,  and,  most  of  all,  oppressed  by  a  keen  sense 
of  the  ingratitude  with  which  his  long  and  loyal  service  was 
requited.  Yet,  in  the  eyes  of  all  fair  men  of  his  own  times,  as 
in  the  view  of  posterity,  he  occupied  a  more  enviable  position 
than  either  the  King  of  France  or  the  ambitious  prelate  for 
whom,  to  use  Sully's  witty  expression,  Duplessis  Mornay  had 
secured  a  cardinal's  hat.4 


1  Henry  to  the  Duke  of  Epernon,  Fontainebleau,  May  5,  1600,  in  the  Me- 
moires  de  Sully  (edition  of  1663),  iv.  8,  and  in  Lettres  missives,  x.  280,  231  ; 
also  in  Vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  271,  etc.  If  Henry  himself  was  not  ashamed, 
some  of  his  Roman  Catholic  followers  must  have  blushed  for  him,  inasmuch 
as  they  quietly  changed  the  expression  "  j'y  ay  faict  merveilles  "  into  l'il  s'y 
est  faict  merveilles."  The  discreditable  letter  was  scattered  broadcast  through 
France,  and  indeed  throughout  Europe. 

3  "  J'ai  voulleu,  dict-il,  soupper  au  champ  de  bataille  (s(;avoir  en  la  salle  du 

baing,  ou  elle  avoit  este  teneue),  mais  dictes  verite,  Monsieur  d'Evreux,  bon 

droict  a  eu  bon  besoing  d'ayde."     Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste,  i.  367. 

Duplessis  Mornay  to  Lomenie,  July  24,  1600,  Memoires,  ix.  381. 

"  Et  bien,  que  vous  en  semble  de  vostre  pape  ?"  Henry  the  Fourth  had 

asked  Sully.     To  which  the  latter  replied  :    "  II  me  semble,  Sire,  qu'il  est  plus 


468      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XV. 

If  Henry,  led  by  political  considerations  to  identify  himself 
more  and  more  with  the  church  which  political  considerations 
Catharine  of  alone  had  influenced  him  in  joining,  seemed  at  times 
to  have  lost  all  the  memories  of  his  Huguenot  train- 
ing, it  was  otherwise  with  his  brave  sister.  Both  before  and 
after  her  marriage  with  the  Duke  of  Bar,  son  of  the  Duke  of 
Lorraine,  she  remained  constant  to  her  early  convictions.  Her 
husband,  a  man  as  susceptible  to  priestly  menaces  as  the  most 
ambitious  of  churchmen  could  desire  to  have  for  a  penitent, 
having  once  married  her,  was  easily  persuaded  by  his  ghostly 
advisers  that  he  had  committed  a  mortal  sin  in  wedding  a 
woman  who  was  not  only  a  Protestant,  but  also  a  distant  rela- 
tion of  his  own.  Xone  but  the  pope,  whose  absolution  he 
secretly  went  to  Koine  to  solicit,  could  liberate  his  soul  from 
the  apprehension  that  it  was  doomed  to  eternal  pains.  The 
poor  man  was  in  the  deepest  dejection,  and  begged  his  unfor- 
tunate bride  to  do  the  only  thing  that  would  melt  the  pontiff's 
heart,  by  embracing  Roman  Catholicism.  lie  insisted  on  her 
listening  to  the  arguments  of  one  Commolet,  a  member  of 
the  order  of  Jesus;  but  after  two  interviews  with  him  she  de- 
clared that  she  had  learned  to  be  still  more  of  a  Huguenot  and 
less  of  a  Jesuit  than  before.1  So  resolute  a  character  offered 
little  encouragement  to  Roman  Catholic  proselytism.  The 
duchess  maintained  her  religious  practices,  regularly  attended 
and  partook  of  the  Lord's  Supper  according  to  the  Reformed 
rites,  and  was  as  steadfast  as  she  had  been  years  before,  when 
she  playfully  assured  her  correspondent,  Duplessis  Mornay,  that 
she  had  never  been  to  mass  either  in  deed  or  in  thought,  hav- 


pape  que  vous  ne  pensez  ;  car  voyez-vous  pas  qu'il  donne  un  chapeau  rou-rn  a 
Monsieur  d'Evreux."  In  addition  to  this,  he  volunteered  the  remark  that, 
if  Protestantism  had  no  better  support  than  Duplessis  Mornav  had  given  it, 
he  would  renounce  it  to-day,  rather  than  wait  until  to-morrow.  Memoires  de 
Sully,  c.  95  (ii.  318).  On  the  conference  of  Fontainebleau,  see  De  Thou.  ix. 
(book  123)  326-329;  Vie  de  Duplessis  Mornay  (Leyden,  1647).  262-272; 
Memoires  de  Charlotte  Arbaleste  (Madame  Duplessis  Mornay),  i.  365-369  ;  the 
correspondence  in  M.  Duplessis  Mornay's Memoires,  ix.  370-389,  etc.;  Benoist, 
Histoire  de  l'edit  de  Nantes,  i.  340-355;  Lestoile,  ii.  311-317. 

1  Letters  of  Catharine  of  Bourbon,  May,   1599,  and  November,    159lJ,   Me- 
moires de  Duplessis  Mornay,  ix.  269,  298,  299. 


1600.  AFTER   THE   EDICT.  469 

ing  reserved  her  conversion  to  such  time  as  he  should  be  elected 
pope.1 

In  truth,  however,  Henry  the  Fourth  himself  was  loath  to  be 
esteemed  estranged  from  his  old  associates  in  faith  and  arms. 
He  showed  himself  very  sensitive  to  certain  speeches  of  indis- 
creet Protestants,  which  seemed  to  imply  that  he  had  become 
a  persecutor,  and  maintained  that,  in  the  midst  of  many  diffi- 
culties he  was  doing  what  he  could  for  them.2 

Meanwhile,  to  the  Protestants  outside  the  kingdom  he  was 

very  gracious.     In  the  course  of  the  war  with  Savoy,  which,  in 

his  inability  to  obtain  from  Charles  Emmanuel  any 

Henry's  kind-  .    r         .  r  1  .  r  ^    ,  ,  , 

nesstothe  satisfaction  for  the  marquisate  or  fealnces,  he  entered 
upon  in  1600,  he  succeeded  in  reducing  almost  the 
whole  of  the  district  of  Bresse,  and  approached  the  city  of 
Geneva.  Here  a  deputation  waited  upon  him,  headed  by  the 
octogenarian,  Theodore  Beza,  whose  laudatory  speech,  full  of 
thanks  for  the  benefits  the  king  had  conferred  upon  the  cause  of 
true  religion  in  France,  was  graciously  received.  In  reply  Henry 
promised  the  little  republic  his  continued  protection,  in  token 
of  which  he  did  them  the  good  service  of  reducing  the  fort  of 
Sainte  Catherine,  a  formidable  stronghold  which  in  the  Duke 
of  Savoy's  hands  was  a  perpetual  menace  to  the  city.  He  was 
even  invited  to  visit  Geneva,  where  the  honest  burghers  enter- 
tained him  and  his  suite  of  nobles  with  princely  hospitality.  The 
next  year  peace  was  concluded,  according  to  the  terms  of  which 
Fort  Sainte  Catherine  was  to  be  restored  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy  ; 
but,  before  leaving,  the  king  secretly  gave  the  Genevese  per- 
mission to  tear  down  the  walls — a  task  upon  the  accomplish- 
ment of  which  the  entire  population  entered  with  such  instant 
alacrity,  and  which  they  accomplished  so  thoroughly,  as  to  leave 
no  vestige  of  the  hated  work  to  be  turned  over  to  their  dangerous 
neighbor.  Great  was  the  anger  of  the  duke.  The  ambassador 
of  Spain  threatened  that  his  master  would  take  sides  with  Savoy. 


1  Letter  of  the  same,  ubi  supra,  1594,  vi.  81. 

2  See  the  account  given  by  M.  Le  Macon,  of  an  interview  he  had  recently 
had  with  the  king  in  a  gallery  of  the  palace  of  Fontainebleau,  in  a  letter  dated 
June  18,  1601,  Memoires  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  ix.  419. 


470      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE    Cu.  XV. 

Most  of  all  was  Cardinal  Aldobrandini,  the  papal  legate,  indig- 
nant that  the  Very  Christian  King  should  so  insult  his  holiness 
by  openly  taking  under  his  protection  the  interests  of  a  city  not 
only  heretical,  but  the  very  citadel  of  heresy.1 

The  incident  just  mentioned  is  among  the  last  of  the  striking 
events  in  the  life  of  the  aged  reformer,  who,  more  than  forty 
Rumored  con-  years  before,  had  won  renown  at  the  Colloquy  of 
Theodore  Poissy  ;  although  that  life  was  protracted  a  few  years 
longer.2  During  the  whole  of  the  period  intervening, 
most  eventful  for  French  Protestantism,  his  name  had  been  a 
tower  of  strength.  There  was  no  one  whose  eloquence  the  op- 
ponents of  the  Huguenots  feared  more,  no  one  whom  they 
would  more  gladly  have  gained  over  by  any  means  within  their 
reach.  And,  as  false  rumors  that  the  brilliant  young  orator  had 
been  vanquished  in  debate  by  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  were 
circulated  at  the  time  of  the  colloquy,  so  stories  of  the  conver- 
sion of  the  aged  divine  were  deliberately  manufactured  and 
sown  broadcast  throughout  Europe  a  few  years  before  his  death. 
Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  when  in  Italy,  was  informed — the  news 
came  from  Pome,  where  such  news  was  systematically  invented 
— "that  Beza,  the  arch-heretic,  Calvin's  successor,  drawing 
toward  his  death,  had  in  full  senate  at  Geneva  recanted  his 
religion,  exhorting  them,  if  they  had  any  care  to  save  their 
souls,  to  seek  reconciliation  with  the  Catholic  Church,  and  to 
send  for  the  Jesuits  to  instruct  them  ;  whereupon  both  himself, 
by  special  order  from  the  pope,  was  absolved  by  the  Bish< 
Geneva  ere  he  died,  and  the  city  had  sent  to  Pome  an  aml>:i<- 
,sage  of  submission."  "  A  beginning  of  which  news."  adds  Sir 
Edwin,  "  it  was  my  chance  to  hear,  as  being  whispered  among 
the  Jesnits,  two  months  ere  it  brake  out ;  but  when  it  was  once 
advertised  so  solemnly  from  Pome,  it  ran  all  over  Christendom, 
and  in  Italy  it  was  so  verily  believed  to  be  true  that  there  were. 


1  Memoires  de  Sully,  c.  97  (ii.  367,  etc.)  ;  De  Thou,  ix.  (book  125  305.  etc.; 
Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  iii.  483.  Fort  Sainte  Catberine  had  been  erected  by  the 
duke  about  two  or  three  leagues  south  east  of  Geneva  Henry  IV.  and  Beza 
met  at  the  little  village  of  Luiset,  within  a  short  distance  of  the  fort. 

'2  Beza  died  in  October,  1605. 


1597.  AFTER  THE  EDICT.  471 

as  is  said,  who  rode  on  very  purpose  to  see  those  ambassadors  of 
Geneva,  yet  invisible."  '  The  truth  was  that  Francois  de  Sales, 
the  future  saint,  relieved  the  monotony  of  his  labors  for  the 
conversion  of  the  district  of  Chablais  (1594  to  1598)  by  sundry 
visits  to  Theodore  Beza  at  Geneva.     It  might  indeed 

Francois  de  .  p    ° 

sales  attempts  li a ve  seemed  somewhat  presumptuous  lor  a   young 

to  bribe  him.  .       .         .         „  .         .   /  r  .  . 

ecclesiastic  or  scarcely  thirty  years  to  hope  to  convert 
by  arguments,  whether  drawn  from  biblical  or  patristic  theology, 
a  master  in  dialectics  his  senior  by  nearly  a  half  century.  But 
courtesy  was  a  native  virtue  with  the  polished  reformer,  and  he 
heard  with  consideration,  and  refuted  with  respect,  the  words 
of  Francois  de  Sales,  until,  in  his  final  interview,  the  latter,  de- 
spairing of  success  by  the  unaided  force  of  reason,  condescended 
to  an  appeal  to  lower  motives.  But  when  the  future  saint  pro- 
ceeded to  offer  Beza,  in  the  name  of  the  pope,  a  yearly  pension 
of  four  thousand  gold  crowns,  as  well  as  a  sum  double  in  amount 
the  value  of  all  his  personal  effects,  whatever  they  might  be 
worth,  the  reformer  repudiated  with  honest  scorn  the  dishonor- 
able proposal  to  sell  his  integrity  and  a  reputation  the  fruit  of 
nearly  fourscore  years  of  disinterested  service  to  the  cause  of 
truth  for  so  paltry  a  bribe.  He  merely  pointed  to  the  empty 
shelves  of  his  bookcases,  whose  treasured  volumes  he  had  but 
recently  sold  that  he  might  apply  the  proceeds  to  the  relief  of 
the  poor,  and  turned  his  back  upon  his  astonished  visitor  with 
the  words  :  "Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan  !"  Others  will  have  it 
that,  in  gentler,  but  not  less  positive,  terms,  he  said  :  "  Go,  sir  ! 
I  am  too  old  and  too  deaf  to  be  able  to  hear  such  words."  2 
And  that  was  the  reason  the  men  of  Sienna  and  of  Rome  waited 
in  vain  at  their  gates  for  the  coming  of  Beza  to  receive  the 
apostolic  absolution. 

If  the  efforts  of  St.  Francois  de  Sales  to  convert  the  Protes- 
tants of  the  district  of  Chablais  were  attended  with  greater  suc- 

1  Europfe  Speculum,  101.  About  the  middle  of  September,  1597,  a  crowd 
lingered  at  the  gates  of  the  city  of  Sienna,  expecting  to  see  Beza  himself  on 
his  way  to  Rome,  and  were  sadly  disappointed  that  he  did  not  arrive.  Heppe, 
Theodor  Beza.  314. 

'2  See  the  full  account  in  Gaberel,  Histoire  de  l'figlise  de  Geneve,  ii.  640, 
etc.;   Heppe,  Theodor  Beza,  811-316. 


472     THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.     On  XV. 

cess,  the  reason  will  be  found  neither  in  the  superior  cogency 

of  his  arguments,  nor  in  the  greater  readiness  of  the  inhabitants 

to  be  impressed  by  them,  but  solely  in  the  material  aid 

His  method  /  J.      .         '  \ 

of  converting  wherewith  the  missionary  was  abundantly  supplied. 

Chablais.  m.  .  .      .  ..     . J.  .      .  /  \l 

Ihe  people  or  that  division  or  the  modern  depart- 
ment of  Haute  Savoie  which  lies  upon  the  southern  side  of  Lake 
Leman — anciently  known  as  the  Bailiwick  of  Chablais — had, 
during  the  twenty-eight  years  of  Bernese  occupation  (1536- 
1564),  become  strongly  Protestant,  and  their  religious  liberty 
was  guaranteed  by  the  treaty  of  Nyon,  under  which  they  again 
became  subjects  of  the  ducal  crown  of  Savoy.  They  conse- 
quently turned  a  deaf  ear  to  Francois  de  Sales's  preaching,  so 
long  as  he  resorted  to  persuasion  alone.  When,  however,  after 
two  years  of  discouragement,  he  succeeded  in  prevailing  upon 
the  duke  to  banish  the  Protestant  minister  and  schoolmaster,  to 
deprive  all  Protestants  of  office,  "  to  sow  terror  among  the 
inhabitants  by  good  edicts,"  and  to  be  "  liberal  to  the  new  con- 
verts ; "  when  the  regiment  of  Martinengo  '  was  quartered  upon 
the  inhabitants  ;  especially,  when  the  duke  came  in  person,  de- 
claring that  he  had  brought  his  sword  to  second  the  holy  enter- 
prises of  Francois  de  Sales — then,  indeed,  conversions,  such  as 
they  were,  multiplied  apace.  Such  devices  as  gathering  all  the 
chief  citizens  of  Thonon,  the  principal  place  of  the  district,  in 


1  "  The  Martinengo  regiment  was  a  name  that  had  only  to  be  whispered  in 
all  that  region  to  make  the  blood  run  cold  with  horror.  It  was  a  regiment  of 
Spanish  mercenaries  that  had  been  trained  in  the  American  wars  to  an  ex- 
quisite delight  and  ingenuity  in  human  torture.  Seven  years  before,  in  the 
provinces  neighboring  the  Chablais,  it  had  been  let  loose  like  a  ferocious  beast 
by  the  duke  upon  his  own  unarmed  Protestant  subjects,  and  day  after  day 
had  revelled  in  ingenious  torture,  murder,  and  destruction.  The  simple  pro- 
ces-verbal  containing  the  catalogue  of  these  atrocities  is  one  of  the  most  awful 
pages  in  history.  .  .  .  To  violate,  to  torture,  to  maim,  to  murder  by  slow  de- 
grees, were  not  enough  ;  the  bodies  of  the  murdered  must  be  mutilated  and 
ooscenely  exposed."  L.  W.  Bacon,  ubi  infra.  The  horrible  details,  too  foul 
for  modern  eyes  to  read,  for  modern  ears  to  hear,  are  given,  village  for  village, 
and  in  part,  name  by  name,  in  the  contemporary  pamphlet  "  Bref  et  vrai  re- 
cueil  des  horribles  carnages  perpetres  de  froid  sang  par  les  troupes  du  Due  de 
Savoye,  a  leurs  entrees  tant  du  balliage  de  Gez,  que  du  mandement  de  Gaillard, 
os  environs  de  Geneve,  sur  les  povres  paysans  et  sujects  dudit  Due."  etc.  Re- 
printed in  Memoires  de  la  Ligue,  iv.  743,  etc.,  and  in  Gaberel,  ii.  235-'^4'2. 


1597.  AFTER   THE  EDICT.  473 

the  town-hall,  where  the  obstinate  Protestants  were  roughly 
ordered  by  the  duke  to  step  to  one  side  of  the  room,  worked 
satisfactorily  ;  for  the  recalcitrants  were  driven  into  banishment 
within  three  days,  while  the  rest  submitted,  and  were  converted. 
In  short,  the  scenes  of  the  times  of  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict 
of  Nantes  were  anticipated  by  eighty-seven  years.  Evidently 
St.  Francois  de  Sales  is  entitled  to  a  distinction,  which  his  pane- 
gyrists have  not  thought  fit  to  place  to  his  credit,  as,  if  not  ab- 
solutely the  author  of  that  ingenious  instrument  of  conversion 
known  as  the  "  mission  bottee,"  yet  one  of  the  first  to  appreci- 
ate and  turn  to  account  its  latent  capabilities  ;  for  the  "dragon- 
nades  "  of  1598  differed  from  those  of  1685  only  in  that  the 
troopers  were  in  the  service  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  instead  of 
receiving  their  pay  from  the  coffers  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth.1 

Meanwhile  the  Protestants  of  France  were  long  to  be  free 
from  the  cruelty  practised  upon  their  brethren  in  the  district  of 
Chablais.  Averse  to  needless  commotion,  not  even 
ron's  con-  the  attempt  of  Biron,  heir  both  to  his  father's  mili- 
tary skill  and  to  his  father's  treachery,  was  successful 
in  luring  them  into  a  rebellion ;  and  the  Duke  of  Bouillon  was, 
perhaps,  the  only  Protestant  leader  of  prominence  who  was 
strongly  suspected  of  complicity  in  the  abortive  plot,  and  who 
consulted  safety  by  flight.2     Nor  were  the  Huguenots  moved 


1  The  proof  of  the  responsibility  of  St.  Francois  de  Sales  for  all  the  atrocious 
persecution  to  which  Chablais  was  subjected  is  incontrovertible.  The  original 
documents  are  mostly  preserved  in  the  Turin  Archives.  M.  Gaberel  made 
excellent  use  of  them  in  his  history  of  the  Church  of  Geneva,  published  in  1855,. 
already  referred  to,  ii.  583-639  ;  and  more  recently,  the  Rev.  Leonard  W. 
"Bacon,  D.D. ,  has  analyzed  and  set  forth  the  evidence  in  a  convincing  form 
in  an  article  in  Macmillan's  Magazine  for  September,  1878,  under  the  title 
k<  Two  Sides  to  a  Saint." — Meanwhile  the  most  nattering  representations  of  the 
canonized  Bishop  of  Geneva  continue  to  be  current.  ' '  To  the  last  moment  of 
his  life,"  says  Mrs.  Jameson,  "  love,  in  its  scriptural  sense  of  a  tender,  all-em- 
bracing charity,  was  the  element  in  which  he  existed.  .  .  .  He  is  celebrated 
for  his  devotional  writings,  which  are  almost  as  much  admired  by  Protestants  as 
by  Catholics  for  their  eloquence  and  Christian  spirit ;  he  is  yet  more  interest- 
ing for  his  benign  and  tolerant  character  ;  his  zeal,  so  tempered  by  gentle- 
ness."    Legends  of  the  Monastic  Orders,  467. 

5  D'Aubigne,  one  of  the  Huguenots  whose  opinion  Bouillon  sought,  scouted 
the  idea  that  his  party  should  throw  in  their  lot  with  the  marshal,  and  carried 


474      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cn  XV. 

even  by  the  new  favor  shown  the  Jesuits,  and  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  that  order  into  Beam. 

True,  the  city  of  La  Eochelle  again  distinguished  itself  for  its 
almost  republican  independence.  One  Seguiran,  a  Jesuit,  made 
bold  to  seek  admission  to  the  old  Protestant  stronghold,  and, 
unknown  to  Henry,  procured  from  two  of  the  royal 
t\heegJatesofat  secretaries  a  letter  in  his  majesty's  name,  COmmand- 
La  Rochelle.       .^  ^  ^  ^  receive  Jjjm<        T>ut  t]ie  Rodiellois    had 

lost  neither  their  caution  nor  their  readiness  in  repartee.  When 
Seguiran  presented  himself  at  the  gates,  announcing  himself  as 
a  companion  of  the  Order  of  Jesus  and  the  bearer  of  letters 
from  the  king,  the  quick-witted  porter  at  once  declined  t<» 
recognize  him  in  either  capacity.  "  The  Lord  Jesus,*'  he  said, 
"has  no  companions,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  you  have  any 
letters  from  the  king."  '  And  Henry,  though,  when  informed 
of  the  occurrence,  he  felt  compelled  to  assume  the  appearance 
of  anger  at  the  audacity  of  the  Rochellois,  was  secretly  well 
pleased.  Firmly  believing  that  in  no  way  could  he  guard  his 
life  from  their  conspiracies  but  by  granting  to  the  Jesuits  extra- 
ordinary favors,  his  majesty  did  indeed  go  to  the  length  of  urg- 
ing upon  the  pope  the  canonization  of  Ignatius  Loyola  and 
Francis  Xavier;2  but  it  was  policy,  not  love,  that  led  him  to 
assume  a  part  so  little  consistent  with  his  past  history. 

The  comparative  peace  enjoyed  under  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 
during  the  last  years  of  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Fourth,  enabled 
the  Huguenots  to  carry  more  fully  into  execution  the  plans  they 
had  long  since  formed  respecting  education. 

In  few  respects  was  the  history  of  the  Protestant  party   in 

France  more  remarkable  than  in  the  evidence  of  an  unfaltering 

determination  to  provide  for  the  youth  a  system  of  in- 

Protestant  *  .         .    *  , 

education.  struction  at  once  excellent  m  itself  and  unobjection- 
able in  its  moral  and  religious  tendencies.  It  was  do  accident 
that,  even  amid  the  fires  of  persecution,  during  a  period  in  which 


with  him   the  entire    company  that  was  present.      Histoire   universelle.    in. 
(bk.  v.  chapters  x.  and  xi.)486,  etc.  '  Benoist.  i.  439. 

2  See  the  letter  of  Henry  IV.  to  the  pope,  of  July,  1G09,  Lettres  missives,  vu. 

747,  748. 


1598—1610.  AFTER  THE  EDICT.  475 

the  Huguenots  were  denied  those  rights  of  conscience  at  pres- 
ent esteemed  to  he  of  the  common  heritage  of  man,  when  their 
public  exercises  of  worship  were  alternately  restricted  within  nar- 
row limits  and  utterly  proscribed,  their  ministers  forbidden  the 
kingdom  or  made  liable  to  imprisonment  and  death  at  the  gal- 
lows, this  devoted  people  should  have  pondered  long  and  to  so 
good  purpose  over  the  general  subject  of  popular  education.  A 
creed  that  exalts  the  authority  of  the  written  word  of  God  and 
pays  little  attention  to  human  tradition,  that  vindicates  the 
right  of  every  Christian  to  read  and  judge  for  himself  respect- 
ing the  truths  which  the  Divine  Author  intended  to  convey  in 
the  pages  of  that  word,  and  makes  little  of  priestly  interpreta- 
tion— such  a  creed  demands  of  necessity  the  intellectual  eleva- 
tion of  the  masses  of  the  people  to  a  plane  far  higher  than  that 
which  will  answer  the  requirements  of  other  creeds,  based  upon 
unquestioning  obedience  on  the  part  of  the  laity  to  the  prescrip- 
tions of  the  sacerdotal  class.  It  was  natural,  therefore,  that  the 
Huguenots  of  France  should  make  it  their  first  care  to  provide 
the  people  with  that  primary  instruction  which  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic clergy  had  failed  to  furnish  to  their  flocks.  In  the  king- 
dom of  the  Very  Christian  King  it  was  as  true  as  throughout  the 
rest  of  Western  Europe,  that  "popular  instruction  was  the  child 
of  Protestantism."  'Not  a  city,  not  a  town  or  village,  was  con- 
quered by  the  "  new  doctrines,"  but  a  Protestant  school  followed 
closely  upon  the  newly  instituted  church,  and  the  teacher  was 
esteemed  a  scarcely  less  essential  officer  in  the  ecclesiastical  pol- 
ity than  the  preacher  of  the  gospel  himself.  It  was  not  long 
before  every  child  of  a  Huguenot  family  was  acquiring  not  only 
the  arts  of  reading  and  writing,  but  the  rudiments  of  religious 
doctrine  as  contained  in  the  catechism  of  John  Calvin.  The 
enemies  of  the  Protestants  observed,  with  feelings  akin  to  de- 
spair, that,  throughout  great  tracts  of  country,  "the  chil- 
dren were  learning  religion  only  in  the  catechism  brought  from 
Geneva,  and  all  knew  it  by  heart."  1  In  some  places  where  the 
Protestants  were  in  power,  education  was  not  only  gratuitous 


1  Villars  to  the  Guises,  October,  1560,  in  Negociations  sous  Francois  II.,  671. 
See   Rise  of  the  Huguenots,  i.  429. 


476      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    On.  XV. 

but  compulsory  ;  and  the  parents  or  guardians  of  all  children 
under  fourteen  years  of  age  who  neglected  to  send  them  daily 
to  school  were  subjected  to  a  fine.1 

But  this  was  not  enough.  The  wants  of  those  who  aspired  to 
a  higher  education  must  be  met,  and  for  them  a  training 
esteemed  by  the  Protestants  to  be  truly  Christian  must  be  pro- 
vided. France  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  had  it- 
colleges  and  universities,  some  of  them  already  dating  from  a 
hoary  antiquity.  Including  the  University  of  Paris,  whose  au- 
The  state  thori'ty  and  attendance  threw  all  the  rest  into  the 
universities.  shade,  there  were  sixteen  universities  within  the 
bounds  of  the  kingdom.  Paris  claimed  to  date  from  the  close 
of  the  twelfth  century,  if  not  earlier.  Toulouse  and  Montpellier 
traced  their  origin  back  to  the  thirteenth  century ;  Orleans, 
Cahors,  Valence,  Angers  and  Orange  to  the  fourteenth  ;  Aix, 
Dole,  Poitiers,  Caen,  Nantes,  Bourges,  and  Bordeaux  to  the  fif- 
teenth ;  Bheims  alone  belonged  to  the  sixteenth.  The  colleges, 
below  but  affiliated  with  these,  numbered  about  forty.2  This 
educational  system,  suited  as  it  might  be  to  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic majority  of  the  kingdom,  was  in  great  part  useless  to  the 
Protestant  minority.  The  Huguenot  student  of  medicine  might. 
it  is  true,  safely  frequent  the  lecture-rooms  of  the  celebr 
faculty  of  Montpellier,  the  Huguenot  student  of  jurisprudence 
the  halls  of  the  no  less  noted  Faculty  of  Law,  chief  ornament  of 
the  University  of  Orleans — so  long,  at  least,  as  the  body  of  their 
Poman  Catholic  fellow-students  would  tolerate  the  presence  of 
reputed  heretics  among  them.  But  the  candidate  for  the  Re- 
formed ministry  could  not  hope  to  obtain  the  teaching  he  need- 
ed in  the  halls  of  the  Sorbonne  and  at  the  hands  of  professors 
to  whom  the  very  notion  of  a  biblical  training  was  an  offence. 
Nor  could  the  more  general  training  preparatory  to  all  profes- 
sional education  be  safely  sought  in  the  existing  colleges,  even 
had  their  standard  of  learning  been  higher  than  it  was. 

The  Huguenots  felt  at  once  that  they  must  have  their  own 

1  Minutes  of  the  Council  of  the  city  of  Castres,  April  17,  1577,  in  Memoires 
de  Gaches,  491. 

2  D.  Bourchenin,  Etude  sur  les  Academies   Protestantes  en   France  au  XVI* 
et  au  XVII0  siecle,  19. 


1598—1610.  AFTER  THE   EDICT.  477 

universities  and  colleges,  and  nobly  did  they  apply  themselves 
to  the  task  of  securing  them.  For,  whereas,  at  other  times  and 
in  other  countries,  the  chief  impediment  has  been  the  lack  of 
pecuniary  resources  for  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of 
these  higher  schools,  among  the  Huguenots  of  France,  from  the 
time  they  came  into  existence  down  to  the  moment  when  their 
religion  was  proscribed  by  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  a  yet  more 
formidable  and  well-nigh  insurmountable  obstacle  was  found 
in  the  sleepless  activity  of  the  hostile  clergy  of  the  estab- 
lished church.  Xor  did  that  activity  cease  when  the  Protestant 
college  or  university  was  once  set  on  foot.  It  continued,  in  the 
form  of  vexatious  interference,  down  to  the  day  when  the  ill- 
will  of  the  monarch  and  the  subserviency  of  the  courts  of  justice 
permitted  the  execution  of  a  determined,  and,  in  the  end,  suc- 
cessful effort  to  close  the  doors  of  every  Protestant  school  in 
France. 

Meantime  the  Huguenots  gradually  provided  themselves  with 
not  less  than  thirty  colleges  and  eight  "  academies,"  or  univer- 
sities.1 Over  against  the  venerable  seats  of  learning 
Protestant  ^  already  named  they  established  the  Protestant  uni- 
oruniversi-  versities  of  Nismes,  Orthez,  Orange,  Sedan,  Mont- 
pellier,  Montauban  (later  removed  to  Puylaurens), 
Saumur,  and  Die — youthful  institutions,  full  of  vitality  and 
promise  of  usefulness,  for  which  they  had  no  reason  to  blush 

1  It  is  to  be  noticed,  however,  that  the  national  synods  of  the  reign  of  Henry 
the  Fourth,  whose  zeal  for  the  maintenance  of  these  institutions  has  been 
already  spoken  of,  do  not  mention  all  the  academies  whose  names  appear  in  the 
text.  Orthez  was  in  Beam,  and  Orange  in  the  principality  of  that  name,  neither 
district  being  as  yet  incorporated  in  France.  The  National  Synod  of  Montpel- 
lier  makes  an  appropriation  for  the  maintenance  of  the  existing  tk  universities  " 
at  Saumur  and  Montauban,  and  grants  a  smaller  sum  to  help  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  "  academies  "  of  Montpellier  and  Nismes.  The  Synod  of  Jargeaux 
continues  the  support  of  these  schools  of  learning,  and  orders  a  further  sum 
of  500  crowns  to  be  given  annually  ''for  the  advancement  of  that  of  Sedan, 
which  is  very  convenient  for  the  neighboring  provinces."  These  are  the  only 
five  academies  provided  for  in  the  succeeding  synods,  held  at  Gap  and  La 
Rochelle.  The  Synod  of  Gap  declined,  in  view  of  the  pecuniary  burdens 
already  weighing  upon  the  churches  and  for  other  reasons,  to  undertake  the 
expense  of  founding  the  "  academie  "  at  Die.  See  Aymon,  Tous  les  Synodes, 
i.  225,  251,  273,  339. 


478       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Cn.  XV 

when  a  contrast  was  drawn  between  these  newer  seminaries 
and  their  elder  sisters  and  rivals.  The  story  of  their  scientific 
and  theological  achievements  belongs  chiefly  to  a  period  subse- 
quent to  the  date  of  the  assassination  of  Henry  the  Fourth  ; 
nor  could  it  be  treated  in  such  detail  as  might  be  desirable,  save 
in  a  work  specially  devoted  to  the  consideration  of  this  theme. 
Moreover,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that,  besides  these  institu- 
tions within  the  boundaries  of  France  proper,  there  existed 
other  schools  of  learning,  immediately  outside  of  the  kingdom, 
which  were  not  less  potent  in  their  influence  upon  the  educa- 
tional elevation  of  the  Huguenots.  At  Montbeliard,  at  Stras- 
bourg, and  especially  at  Geneva,  the  Protestant  youth  of  France 
might  find  the  opportunity  to  gain  the  priceless  advantage  of 
a  liberal  education  at  the  feet  of  competent  Christian  teachers, 
even  when  persecution  raged  most  fiercely  against  the  adherents 
of  the  Reformation  at  home.  Under  the  venerable  Theodore 
Beza  the  Academie  of  Geneva  continued  to  enjoy  high  repute 
for  the  breadth  of  its  course  of  instruction  and  the  ability  of  the 
men  whom  it  had  sent  out  as  graduates  from  its  halls.  Not, 
indeed,  that  either  the  department  of  law  or  the  department  of 
medicine  at  once  attained  the  prominence  reached,  from  the 
very  nature  of  the  case,  by  the  department  of  theology  almost 
at  the  start.  But  the  names  of  Ennemond  Bonnefoy  and  his 
eminent  colleague,  Francois  Hot  man,  a  master  of  Roman  law, 
were  glorious  enough  to  illustrate  any  university;  and  if  the 
students  of  medicine  were  never  numerous,  they  were,  at 
taught  to  rise  above  the  current  prejudices  of  thi  It  is 

no  insignificant  fact  that,  in  1564,  an  ordinance  wae  secured 
from  the  government  of  the  little  republic,  permitting  the  dis- 
section of  the  bodies  of  malefactors  executed  by  order  of  the 
law,  and  even  of  persons  dying  in  the  hospitals.1 

Under  the  beneficent  edict  for  their  protection   the  llugue- 

1  Bourclienin,  Etude  sur  les  Academies  Protestantes  91 .  On  this  general  sub- 
ject the  reader  may  consult  Professor  Michel  Xicolas's  recently  published  Ilis- 
toire  de  rancienne  Academie  protestnnte  de  Montauban  1598-1659)  et  de  Puy- 
laurens  (1660-1685),  and  the  same  author's  contributions  to  the  Bulletin  delaSo- 
cietede  l'histoiredu  Protestantisme  i'ranvais,  vols.  ii..  iv.andvi.  The  venerable- 
professor's  decease  is  announced  as  these  pages  are  passing  through  the  | 


1598—1610.  AFTER  THE  EDICT.  470 

nots  began,  wherever  their  worship  was  tolerated,  to  provide 
themselves  with  large  and  commodious  buildings,  such  as  for 
Erection  of  many  years  they  had  not  even  dreamed  of  erecting. 
SftSot  "tem-  True,  forty  years  earlier,  in  the  first  glow  attend- 
ees." jng  i\ie  wonderful  expansion  of  the  reformatory 
movement  in  the  reign  of  Francis  the  Second,  some  spacious 
edifices  had  been  hastily  constructed  to  meet  the  sudden 
demand.  Of  such  a  character  was  the  great  Protestant  struc- 
ture which  M.  de  Yieilleville  (in  August,  1560)  found  in  the 
very  centre  of  the  city  of  Dieppe,  and  which  that  estimable 
man,  with  great  regret,  felt  himself  compelled  to  tear  down — a 
very  handsome  structure,  described  in  his  Memoires  as  closely 
resembling  the  Coliseum  of  Rome  or  the  ruined  amphitheatre 
at  Nismes,  and  as  requiring  three  days  for  its  demolition.1  Since 
that  period  the  Huguenots  had  frequently  enjoyed  the  oppor- 
tunity of  taking  possession  of  parish  churches,  in  places  in 
which  the  Protestants  constituted  the  large  majority  of  the 
population,  and  when  the  fortunes  of  war  threw  cities  into  their 
hands.  But  now  they  were  compelled  to  restore  the  churches 
to  the  adherents  of  the  established  form  of  religion.  Besides, 
the  churches  in  question  were  at  best  but  poorly  adapted  to  the 
purposes  of  Protestant  worship.  Admirably  suited  as  they 
were  for  spectacular  effects,  their  acoustic  properties  wrere  not 
good.  The  priest  officiating  at  the  altar  could  easily  be  seen, 
but  his  voice  was  imperfectly  heard.  To  the  Roman  Catholics 
this  was  of  little  moment.  The  priest's  sermons  were  few  ;  he 
made  no  attempts  to  expound  the  Sacred  Scriptures  ;  and  the 
occasional  harangues  of  some  friar  in  Advent  or  Lententide 
were  all  that  the  people  were  called  upon  to  follow.  But  to 
the  Protestants  the  sermons  were  all-important.  Catharine 
de'  Medici  had  not  been  far  out  of  the  way  when  she  said  that 
all  the  Huguenots  wanted  to  be  perfectly  satisfied  was  "  to  have 
their  fill  of  preaching  " — "  leur  saoule  de  jpresches"  It  was 
of  the  utmost  consequence  that  each  worshipper  should  be  able 
to  hear  with  distinctness  every  syllable  uttered  by  the  minister, 
beginning  with  the  text,  through  all  the  heads  of  his  discourse, 

1  Memoires  de  Vieilleville,  ii.  448 ;  Rise  of  the  Huguenots,  i.  408. 


480       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Oi.  XV. 

down  to  the  practical  application  at  the  end.  At  the  same  time, 
since  it  was  not  in  every  town  or  village  that  Protestant  preach- 
ing wras  permitted,  since  the  Huguenots  could  assemble  only  in 
two  places  in  a  bailiwick  or  senechaussee,  or  upon  .some  prop- 
erty of  a  nobleman  possessing  the  prerogative  of  administering 
"  haute  justice,"  and  since  they  must  therefore  come  from  con- 
siderable distances  round  about,  the  church  edifices— or  "  tem- 
ples," as  they  were  wxmt  to  call  them — must  be  so  constructed 
as  to  seat  congregations  vastly  exceeding  in  size  those  which  are 
wont  to  frequent  divine  service  in  countries  where  houst 
worship  may  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  A  new  art  was  called 
into  existence — the  art  of  rearing  great  structures,  having  little 
that  would  strike  the  eye  of  the  beholder  as  strictly  ecclesiasti- 
cal in  pattern  or  association,  but  furnishing  sitting  or  stand- 
ing room  for  an  incredible  number  of  persons;  and  all  this 
without  taxing  beyond  measure  the  slender  purses  of  men 
who  had  for  a  generation  been  withstanding  the  most  releir 
of  attacks.  There  were  places,  like  commercial  Dieppe,  where 
at  one  time  the  Protestants  claimed  almost  the  entire  popula- 
tion. The  few  Roman  Catholics  that  remained  were 
men  of  no  standing  or  influence.  The  Protestants 
believed  themselves  in  good  faith  to  be  entitled  to  the  parish 
churches,  which  their  own  ancestors  had  built  and  endow 
especially  as  the  smallest  of  the  existing  chapels  would  ea 
contain  all  the  congregation  which  the  priests  could  gather. 
Frustrated  in  expectations  deemed  by  them  must  reasonable, 
they  set  themselves  to  build  anew.    On  the  Sunday  after  Pente- 

1  In  a  petition   addressed  by  the  Protestants  of  Dieppe  to  K.  de  La  Caree, 

governor  of  the  city,  in  April,  15G3,  they  applied  for  permission  to  retain  the 
church  of  St.  Jacques,  leaving  the  other  church  of  St.  Remy  "aceux  ijiiv 
voudront  vivre  en  la  religion  de  l'esglise  Romaiue,  quy  sont  tons  gens  de 
condition,  et  en  sy  petit  nombre,  que  le  dit  temple  de  St.  Remy  est  beaucoup 
plus  grand  qu'il  ne  leur  faut.  C'est  pourquoy  la  plus  grand*1  partye  de> 
habitans  quy  doit  emporter  l'autre,  et  dont  les  predecesseurs  out  i'onde, 
edifie,  donne,  et  augmente  le  dit  temple  .  .  .  sera  dedommagee  de s  frais 
qu'il  conviendroit  faire  pour  batir  autre  lieu."  So  in  a  letter  to  the  Prince 
of  Condc,  of  April  20,  15G3,  they  speak  of  their  Roman  Catholic  fellow  citi- 
zens as  "  en  sy  petit  nombre  et  de  sy  viles  personnes,  qu'ils  n'aparoissent  ny 
ne  se  mettent  aucunement  en  effet  de  paroistre."  Daval,  Histoire  de  La  B 
formation  a  Dieppe,  i.  50,  52. 


1598—1610.  AFTER  THE  EDICT.  481 

cost,  the  twenty-second  of  June,  1601,  they  had  the  satisfaction 
of  worshipping  for  the  first  time  in  a  "temple"  just  finished, 
which  measured  ninety  feet  in  length  by  seventy-four  feet  in 
breadth.  Six  or  seven  years  later,  the  walls  were  overthrown 
in  a  great  storm  that  swept  over  the  place.  The  Protestants  of 
Dieppe  were  not  discouraged.  The  temple  that  arose  from  the 
ruins,  in  1608,  was  oval  in  shape,  and  measured  one  hundred 
and  ten  feet  across  the  greater  diameter  and  eighty  feet  across 
the  shorter.  Its  cost  was  about  twenty  thousand  livres.1  We 
need  not  follow  the  faithful  chronicler,  who  describes  with  lov- 
ing minuteness  all  the  architectural  features  of  this  marvel  of 
convenience  and  compactness,  but  we  may  be  well  assured  that, 
as  its  vast  auditorium  re-echoed  to  the  strains  of  the  psalms,  or 
the  great  body  of  worshippers  listened  with  devout  attention  to 
the  reading  and  exposition  of  the  gospel  in  their  mother-tongue, 
the  hearts  of  many  were  raised  in  thankfulness  to  Almighty 
God  for  having  deigned  to  confer  upon  them  the  inestimable 
blessings  guaranteed  by  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  Our  informant 
has  unfortunately  neglected  to  tell  us  how  many  persons  could 
gather  within  the  sacred  walls.  The  number  could  scarcely 
have  been  less  than  live  or  six  thousand,  and  may  easily  have 
exceeded  those  figures ;  but  whatever  it  was,  the  place  was 
found  too  crowded.  Within  four  years  the  structure  was  en- 
larged by  taking  into  the  audience-room  some  parts  of  the  build- 
ing previously  destined  to  another  purpose.2 

The  Protestants  of  the  capital  were,  in  one  respect,  at  a  pe- 
culiar disadvantage.  The  Roman  Catholic  counsellors  of  Henry 
the  Fourth  would  hear  of  no  edict  in  favor  of  the  Huguenots, 
unless  the  services  of  Protestant  worship  should  be  banished  to 
a  distance  of  at  least  five  leagues  from  Notre  Dame ;  and  the 
negotiators  had  been  compelled  to  yield  the  point.  After  the 
publication  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  the  little  village  of 
Ablon,  situated  on  the  left  bank  of  the  winding  river 
Seine,  at  about  the  required  distance  above  Paris,  was  selected 
as  a  proper  site.  Even  this  poor  concession  was  greeted  with 
delight  by  the  Huguenots  of  the  city,  long  accustomed  to  such 


1  Ibid.,  ubi  supra,  i.  174,  175.  2  Ibid.,  ubi  supra,  i.  196. 

Vol.  II. —31 


482  THE   HUGUENOTS   AND   HENRY   OF   NAVARRE.  Ctt  XV 

poor  and  occasional  privileges  as  a  favored  few  alone  could  en- 
joy, in  the  apartments  of  the  king's  sister  or  in  the  quarters  of 
some  foreign  embassy.  But  the  hardships  to  be  endured  in 
reaching  Ablon  were  great  enough  to  discourage  less  devout  wor- 
shippers. In  bad  weather,  to  row  fifteen  miles  up  the  river 
before  service,  and  fifteen  miles  back  in  the  evening,  was  a  for- 
midable undertaking.  The  exposure  was  fatal  to  many  a  man 
and  woman,1  not  to  speak  of  accidents  by  collision,  such  as  that 
which,  at  a  subsequent  time,  occurred  to  the  eminent  Isaac 
Casaubon,  when  going  even  the  short  distance  to  Charenton, 
and  which  came  near  ending  his  life  and  the  lives  of  the  mem- 
bers of  his  family  that  accompanied  him.  Most  disastrous, 
however,  was  the  journey  to  the  infants  whom  Protestant  par- 
ents were  obliged  to  carry  this  great  distance  to  be  baptized, 
since  the  discipline  of  the  Reformed  Church,  as  we  have  seen, 
permitted  the  initial  ordinance  to  be  performed  only  in  connec- 
tion with  public  worship  and  preaching.  Within  a  single  year 
forty  children  succumbed  to  disease  brought  on  by  their  unfor- 
tunate exposure.2  For  several  years  the  king  was  deaf  to  the  re- 
monstrances of  his  Huguenot  subjects,  but  at  length,  in  1606,  he 
consented  to  relieve  them  of  the  necessity  of  going  so  far.  Of 
his  own  authority,  and  almost  without  consulting  any  one  else, 
he  fixed  upon  a  place  destined  to  become  famous  in 
connection  with  later  Protestant  history.  Charenton, 
then  little  more  than  a  hamlet,  stood  on  the  northern  bank  of 
the  Seine,  just  below  its  junction  with  the  Marne.     The  selec- 

1  The  Ephemerides  of  Casaubon  are  full  of  references  to  these  sad  experi- 
ences. In  his  own  family  a  nephew  lost  his  life  as  the  direct  consequence  of 
a  trip  to  Ablon  by  boat  on  Palm-Sunday,  1602.  Bulletin  de  la  Soc.  de  l'hist. 
du  Prot.  franqais,  ii.  272. 

2  The  "  Cahier  des  plaintes  et  remonstrances  pour  ceux  de  la  religion,"  pre- 
sented to  the  king  in  1601,  says  that  the  children  were  in  evident  danger  of 
their  lives,  "  tant  pour  la  longueur  et  incommodite  du  chemin  que  a  cause  des 
grandes  froidures  de  l'hyver  et  chaleurs  de  Teste,  dont  il  est  advenu  que 
plusieurs  desdits  enf ans  jusques  au  nombre  de  quarante,  ont  este  l'hyver 
miserablement  esteints  et  suffoques.,,  Bulletin,  etc..  ii.  253,  354.  Henry  IV.. 
in  his  letters-patent  of  August  1,  1606,  granting  the  change  of  place  from 
Ablon  to  Charenton,  speaks  of  the  inability  of  Protestant  parents  to  carry  their 
children  to  the  former  place  for  baptism,  "  sans  peril,  en  les  exposant  a  l'in- 
jure  de  l'air  par  un  si  grand  chemin."     Ibid.,  iii.  421. 


1598— 1610.  AFTER  THE   EDICT.  483 

tion  of  this  spot  almost  caused  a  riot  among  the  bigoted  Paris- 
ians, who  did  not  fail  to  call  the  kings  attention  to  the  fact  that, 
in  bringing  the  hated  Protestant  services  so  near  to  the  capital, 
he  was  violating  one  of  the  prescriptions  of  his  edict.  Having 
once  made  up  his  mind,  Henry  was  not  easily  moved  from  his 
purpose ;  but  instead  of  an  angry  retort  he  preferred  to  close 
the  mouths  of  the  objectors  by  an  unanswerable  jest.  "  In  order 
not  to  break  my  word,"  he  said,  with  a  smile,  "  we  shall  have 
henceforth  to  count  five  leagues  from  Paris  to  Charenton  ! "  J 
No  surveyor  other  than  a  king  could  have  made  the  distance 
above  a  league  and  a  half,  or  two  leagues  at  most. 

Of  the  first  "temple  "  of  Charenton,  erected  as  soon  as  the  royal 
permission  was  obtained,  the  notices  are  few  and  unsatisfactory. 
Of  the  second,  which  arose  after  the  destruction  of  the  former 
by  fire,  we  have  a  fuller  description.  This  was  the  building 
that  remained  down  to  the  period  of  the  Revocation,  and  whose 
overthrow,  accomplished  by  order  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  was 
as  much  a  source  of  rejoicing  to  the  clergy  and  to  the  order  of 
the  Jesuits,  as  an  occasion  of  lamentation  to  the  Protestants. 
Its  lofty  roof,  as  ancient  prints  show,  a  conspicuous  object  for 
a  great  distance  around,  was  the  beacon  by  which  the  devout 
Protestants  of  Paris  shaped  their  course  every  Lord's  Day 
morning,  as,  with  singing  of  the  melodies  of  Bourgeois  or  the 
more  intricate  harmonies  of  Gondimel,  they  wended  their  way 
by  boat  to  the  quay,  among  a  throng  of  other  boats  bound  for 
the  same  destination.  On  the  floor  of  the  sacred  edifice,  and  in 
the  two  galleries  surrounding  it,  there  was  said  to  be  space  for 
fourteen  thousand  worshippers,  and  recent  calculations  seem  to 
show  that  the  estimate  was  not  exaggerated.2  Even  this  struct- 
ure was  not  spacious  enough  to  hold  the  congregations  at  East- 
er and  on  the  other  occasions  when  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's 


1  "  Elle  les  contenta  dune  replique  prompte  qu'elle  leur  fist  en  sousriant, 
que,  pour  ne  pas  manquer  a  ses  promesses,  il  falloit  desormais  compter  cinq 
lieues  de  Paris  a  Charenton."     Bulletin,  etc.,  iii   429. 

2  Bulletin,  etc.,  v.  171,  172.  In  connection  with  the  admirable  monograph 
on  the  early  "temples"  of  the  church  of  Paris,  published  in  this  periodical, 
there  are  given  views  of  the  second  "  temple"  of  Charenton,  as  well  as  a  plan 
and  sections  of  the  building.     Ibid.,  v.  174,  177,  178. 


484  THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.         Ch.  XV. 

Supper  was  administered  to  the  crowds  that  poured  out  from 
Paris.  At  these  great  solemnities  there  was  erected,  in  another 
part  of  the  grounds  attached  to  the  "  temple,"  a  great  tent,  under 
which  communion  services,  including  public  preaching,  went 
on  contemporaneously  with  those  observed  within  the  edifice. 
At  such  seasons  the  approach  to  the  Protestant  "  temple  " 
was  lined  on  both  sides  with  the  stalls  of  booksellers,  much  as 
they  graced  the  entrance  to  the  college  of  the  Sorbonne  in  the 
city  itself,  and  every  controversial  work  as  it  appeared,  from 
the  ponderous  tome  down  to  the  trifling  pamphlet  or  handbill, 
could  be  purchased  by  such  of  the  throng  as  might  be  so  in- 
clined.1 

It  was  a  favorite  thought  of  the  early  reformers  of  France 
that  their  new  principle  of  life  might  and  ought  to  exhibit 
its  reality  and  its  power  in  every  action  and  in  every  place — 

that  their  words,  their  manners,  and  morals,  even  their 
posts  and  the  very  dwellings,  could  become  the  vehicles  of  conveying 

to  others  a  notion  of  the  lively  hopes  that  animated 
them.  Thus  it  was  that,  not  content  with  causing  the  interior 
of  their  houses  to  resound  with  the  words  and  the  music  of 
their  cherished  psalms,  they  were  fond  of  decorating  the  out- 
side with  short  inscriptions,  drawing  their  sentiments  from 
the  sacred  volume.  The  practice  would  doubtless  have  become 
more  wide-spread,  had  not  the  same  repressive  hand  that  strove 
to  silence  the  singing  within  the  doors  been  extended  to  pre- 
vent the  Huguenot  from  placing  any  distinctive  badge  of  his 
religion  upon  the  outer  walls  of  his  house.  It  was,  therefore, 
only  where  the  Protestants  were  relatively  numerous,  and  chief- 
ly where  they  constituted  the  great  mass  of  the  population,  that 
they  ventured  to  indulge  in  this  beautiful  usage.  Xo  Hugue- 
not inscription  must  be  looked  for  upon  the  old  edifices  of  Paris, 
or  Tours,  or  Orleans.  More  appropriate  for  them  would  be 
some  persecuting  device,  such  as  still  stands  on  the  frontal  of 
the  Palazzo  della  Pagione  of  Milan,  perpetuating  the  memory  i  >t 
the  zeal  of  the  founder,  Podesta  Oldrado  Grosso,  in  the  destruc- 

1  See  the  plan  of  the  temple  and  its  surroundings,  Bulletin,  etc.,  iii.  436. 
437. 


1598—1610.  AFTER  THE  EDICT.  485 

tion  of  those  mediaeval  reformers  who  may  be  regarded  as  the 
forerunners  of  the  later  Huguenots, 

' '  Qui  solium  struxit,  Catharos,  ut  debuit,  uxit. ' ' 

In  fact,  the  line  or  two  drawn  from  Clement  Marot  or  Theo- 
dore Beza  would  have  seemed  strangely  out  of  place  when  the 
gaudy  drapery  was  annually  hung  out  of  window  and  wound 
about  column  on  the  great  feast  of  Fete  Dieu,  or  Corpus  Christi. 
"While  many  of  the  inscriptions  have  certainly  been  destroyed 
by  the  Roman  Catholic  successors  of  the  Huguenot 
not  inserip-     proprietors,  a  number  have  survived,  especially  in  the 
western  part  of  France.     At  Coulonges  sur  l'Autize, 
on  the  stone  support  of  a  window,  may  still  be  read  the  lines, 

"  Quiconque  espere  au  Dieu  vivant, 
Jamais  ne  perira  " — 

"  Whoever  hopes  in  the  living  God  never  shall  perish  " — being 
the  end  of  the  thirty-fourth  Psalm  in  the  metrical  paraphrase. 
An  inscription  upon  the  lintel  of  the  door  of  a  farm-house,  in  a 
village  hard  by,  declares : 

"  On  a  beau  sa  maison  batir  ; 
Si  le  Seigneur  n'y  met  sa  main, 
Cela  n'est  que  batir  en  vain  " — 

"  Except  the  Lord  build  the  house,  they  labor  in  vain  that 
build  it  " — from  the  beginning  of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
seventh  Psalm. 

Often  short  and  pithy  precepts  find  their  place  upon  the 
stone.  Over  an  old  portal  in  the  Rue  du  Minage,  at  La  Rochelle, 
there  are  several  couplets.     One  is, 

"  Vaincre  le  mal  en  bien  faisant 
Est  a  notre  Dieu  fort  plaisant  " — 

"  To  overcome  evil  with  good  is  well-pleasing  to  our  God." 
Another, 

"  A  parler  tardif, 
A  ouir  hatif  " — 

"  Slow  to  speak,  quick  to  hear."     A  third, 

41  Vaut  mieux  sagesse, 
Que  posseder  richesse  " — 

"  Better  is  wisdom  than  the  possession  of  riches." 


4S6       THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.   Ch  XV. 

But  the  thought  upon  which  the  pious  builders  dwelt  with 
most  satisfaction  would  appear  to  have  been  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  earthly  and  temporary,  and  the  heavenly  or  eternal, 
home.  So  at  Marsilly,  a  village  a  few  leagues  from  La  Rochelle, 
immediately  below  the  Latin  words  "  Soli  Deo  "  one  can  yet 
read  the  French  couplet, 

"  Ici  bas  n'avons  un  manoir  eternel, 
Mais  en  cerchons  (cherchonsi  un  tout  perpetuel  " — 

"  Here  below  we  have  no  eternal  abode,  but  we  seek  for 
one  that  is  everlasting."  And,  in  La  Rochelle  itself,  the  most 
suggestive  device  of  all,  the  more  beautiful  for  its  concise  and 
simple  grandeur,  consists  only  of  the  words,  cut  over  the  door 
of  a  house, 

"  En  attendant  une  meilleure  " — 

"  While  waiting  for  a  better  one."  ' 

A  day  of  permanent  peace,  an  era  of  established  tranquillity, 

seemed  at  length  to  have  dawned  upon  the  Huguenots,  under 

the  kindly  rule  of  the  former  "  protector  "  of  their  churches, 

and  beneath  the  safeguard  of  the  perpetual   and   ir- 

of  Henry  the    revocable  law  enacted  for  their   benefit.      The  most 

Fourth.  .  .        ,       ,  .  r  .  , 

cautious  recognized  the  signs  or  continued  growth. 
The  sanguine  anticipated  an  advance  of  Protestantism  in  France 
unexampled  for  rapidity  during  the  previous  years  of  perse- 
cution. All  had  brilliant  visions  of  a  long  career  of  uninter- 
rupted prosperity.  A  blow,  sudden  and  brutal,  awakened  them 
rudely  from  their  dream. 

The  spring  of  the  year  1610  found  Henry  the  Fourth  about 


1  See  the  interesting  contributions,  by  P.  P.  and  L.  de  Richemond  fils,  to 
the  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de  l'histoire  du  Protestantisme  francais,  x.  4,  113, 
114. — "  The  former  guild-house  of  the  French  Tanners'  Guild  in  Berlin, 
where,  after  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  they  had  been  welcomed 
by  the  Elector  Frederick  William  the  Great  and  given  a  house,  now  No.  '-2 
Belle  Alliance  Place,  has  still  the  old  insignia  carved  over  the  door  :  an  eagle, 
covering  by  his  wings  a  number  of  small  birds  ;  and,  underneath,  the  second 
verse  of  the  fifty-seventh  Psalm  in  French :  k  Sous  l'onibre  de  tes  aile?  nous 
avons  trouve  asile.'"  Communicated  by  B.  Fernow,  Esq. ,  Department  of 
MSS. ,  State  Library,  Albany. 


1610.  AFTER  THE   EDICT.  487 

to  enter  upon  a  great  and  important  war.  The  decease  of  John 
William,  Duke  of  Juliers  (Julieh)  and  Cleves,  without  male  off- 
spring, had  left  his  extensive  possessions  on  the  lower  Rhine 
to  be  a  bone  of  contention  between  the  Protestants  and  Roman 
Catholics  of  the  German  Empire.  Solicited  by  the  former,  and 
not  averse  to  avenge  the  insults  and  injuries  he  had  received  at 
the  hands  of  the  Ilabsburgs,  the  French  monarch  definitely  re- 
solved to  espouse  the  cause  of  his  former  allies,  and  to  support 
the  claim  of  the  Margrave  of  Brandenburg  to  the  disputed 
succession.  Meanwhile  he  secured  by  treaty  the  co-operation 
of  Charles  Emmanuel,  of  Savoy,  whose  friendship  was  to  be 
still  further  cemented  by  the  marriage  of  the  king's  eldest 
daughter  to  the  Prince  of  Piedmont,  eldest  son  and  heir  of  the 
duke.  Besides  the  motives  of  policy  hurrying  Henry  into  war 
with  the  house  of  Austria,  other  and  less  creditable  considera- 
tions are  said  to  have  been  equally  potent.  Henry  was  anxious 
to  punish  the  states  that  had  harbored  a  fugitive  whose  escape 
from  Paris  caused  him  extreme  annoyance.  The  son  of  the 
murdered  Henry  of  Conde,  the  infant  about  whose  legitimacy 
there  hung  so  dark  a  cloud  of  uncertainty,1  had  grown  to  be  a 
youth  of  some  twenty-two  years  of  age.  Educated,  in  defiance 
of  his  father's  well-known  wishes,  at  the  royal  court  and  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  the  prince  had,  within  a  few  months, 
been  married  to  Charlotte  Marguerite  of  Montmorency,  daugh- 
ter of  the  constable,  a  woman  not  less  remarkable  for  beauty 
than  illustrious  in  descent.  It  was  not  long,  however,  be- 
fore the  youthful  bridegroom  discovered,  or  believed  that  he 
had  discovered,  that,  in  so  dissolute  a  court,  neither  his  own 
honor  nor  the  virtue  of  his  wife  could  long  be  secure.  A  sub- 
ject, even  if  a  prince  of  the  blood,  might  scarcely  hope  to  shield 
his  consort  from  the  dangerous  solicitation  of  a  king  with  whom 
advancing  years  had  not  increased  respect  for  conjugal  fidelity. 
The  Prince  of  Conde  fled  from  the  kingdom,  and  placed  the 
princess,  his  wife,  in  a  sure  refuge  at  Brussels,  under  protection 
of  the  Austrian  archduke,  while  he  himself  went  on  as  far  south 
as  Milan.     Unsuccessful  in  his  attempts  to  induce  his  cousin  to 

1  See  above,  chapter  viii.,  pages  20-22. 


488      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XV 

return  to  France,  Henry  the  Fourth  found  in  this  episode  new- 
grounds  for  hastening  the  preparations  he  was  already  making 
to  measure  his  strength  against  that  of  the  "  Holy  Roman  Em- 
pire." 

Before  setting  out  upon  the  campaign  which  he  fondly  ex- 
pected to  be  the  most  brilliant  of  his  life,  the  king  was  per- 
suaded to  confer  the  regency  during  his  prospective  absence 
upon  his  queen,  Maria  de'  Medici,  now  the  mother  of  several 
young  princes  whom  she  had  borne  him.  Her  coronation  took 
place  on  Thursday,  the  thirteenth  of  May,  in  the  abbey  church 
of  Saint  Denis.  The  Cardinal  of  Joyeuse  was  the  chief  offi- 
ciating ecclesiastic,  and  no  circumstance  that  could  contribute 
dignity  and  impressiveness  to  the  august  occasion  was  wanting. 
Another  pageant  was  reserved  for  the  ensuing  Sunday,  when 
the  queen  regent  was  to  make  her  pompous  entry  into  the  capi- 
tal. Already  the  citizens  of  Paris  were  busy  with  preparations 
in  view  of  that  event.  Statues,  triumphal  columns,  inscripti*  >ns, 
paintings,  were  rising  at  every  point  upon  the  intended  route 
of  the  procession.  Meantime  Henry  did  not  suffer  his  atten- 
tion to  be  diverted  from  his  martial  project.  Lest  a  moment 
of  precious  time  might  be  lost,  he  superintended  in  person  the 
preparations  for  the  coming  campaign.  So  it  was  that,  between 
three  and  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  Friday,  the  four- 
teenth of  May,  he  rode  out  of  the  courtyard  of  the  Louvre,  in- 
tending to  see  with  his  own  eyes  the  progress  of  the  workmen. 
and  to  encourage  them  by  his  presence.  lie  bade  his  custom- 
ary guard  not  to  escort  him.  Into  the  capacious  carriage  he 
entered  with  about  half  a  dozen  noblemen  of  rank.  He  gave 
the  Duke  of  ICpernon  a  seat  by  him  on  his  right :  his  first 
squire,  Liancourt,  and  Marquis  Mirabeau  were  in  front  and  op- 
posite ;  Marshal  Lavardin  and  Itoquelaure  were  in  the  boot  at 
one  door  of  the  carriage,  the  Duke  of  Montbazon  and  Marquis 
La  Force  in  the  boot  at  the  other  door.  The  king  had  ordered 
all  the  curtains  to  be  raised,  and  was  soon  engaged  in  earnest 
conversation  with  his  companions.  An  assassin,  Francois  Ea- 
vaillac,  of  Angouleme,  had  been  lingering  at  the  palace  gate, 
hoping  to  find  an  opportunity  to  do  his  bloody  work  when  the 
king  should  emerge  from  the  portal.     He  was  disappointed. 


1610.  AFTER  THE  EDICT.  480 

Epernon  occupied  the  place  in  which  he  had  expected  Henry  to 
be,  and  the  victim  he  sought  was  beyond  his  reach.  But  the  favor- 
able moment,  which  Ravaillac  thought  had  escaped  him,  came 
only  too  soon.  The  royal  carriage  in  a  few  minutes  reached 
the  Hue  de  la  Feronnerie,  a  thoroughfare  narrow  at  best,  and 
long  since  rendered  still  more  contracted  by  the  wooden  stores 
or  stalls  which  had  been  erected  on  the  left-hand  side,  attached 
to  the  stone  wall  of  the  Cimetiere  des  Innocents.  Here  two 
heavily  laden  wagons,  one  with  hay,  the  other  with  casks  of 
wine,  blocked  the  way,  causing  the  horses  to  stop  again  and 
again.  The  lackeys  had  left  the  carriage  to  take  a  shorter  or 
less  impeded  path  through  the  cemetery,  the  gentlemen  in  wait- 
ing had  become  separated  and  were  following  as  best  they  could. 
The  single  footman,  who  might  have  warded  off  the  murderous 
blow  from  his  master,  had  stopped  to  fasten  his  garter,  which 
had  become  detached.  Ravaillac,  elbowing  his  way  in  the 
crowd,  reached  the  spot,  heated  and  panting  for  breath,  and 
found  that  his  time  had  come.  The  king  wras  opposite  to  him, 
his  cloak  thrown  off,  his  right  arm  leaning  on  the  neck  of 
Epernon,  to  whom  he  had  given  a  paper  to  read,  his  other  arm 
resting  on  Montbazon's  shoulder,  his  left  side  altogether  unpro- 
tected. The  stealthy  assassin  had  but  to  take  a  single  step  to 
reach  over  the  carriage-wheel,  to  draw  his  well-sharpened  knife 
from  beneath  his  cloak,  to  make  one  swift  thrust,  then  a  second, 
and  all  was  over.  The  weapon  was  carefully  directed  to  the 
king's  heart,  and  had  accomplished  the  miscreant's  purpose. 
Before  the  noblemen  with  whom  Henry  was  conversing  knew 
that  he  had  received  a  wound,  he  was  already  bathed  in  blood 
and  unconscious.     In  an  instant  more  he  was  dead. 

Thus  perished  the  foremost  prince  of  Europe,  the  monarch 
who,  of  all  the  kings  that  ever  sat  on  the  throne  of  France,  is 
perhaps  most  deservedly  held  in  grateful  remembrance  by  pos- 
terity. 

The  character  of  Henry  the  Fourth  can  best  be  gathered  from 
the  record  of  his  life.  Those  who  have  carefully  followed  each 
step  of  his  course,  from  his  birth  in  the  castle  of  Pau,  as  far  re- 
moved from  any  prospect  of  the  crown  of  France  as  his  home 
at  the  foot  of  the  Pyrenees  was  distant  from  the  splendors  of 


490      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XV. 

the  Louvre,  may  be  safely  left  to  paint  the  portrait  of  his  vir- 
tues and  vices  for  themselves.  His  had  been  a  checkered  life, 
full  of  changes,  full  of  surprises;  and  his  personal  qualities  were 
scarcely  less  marked  by  inconsistencies  and  contradictions.  His 
Appearance  appearance  was  prepossessing.  Though  he  was  not 
of  Hen?yaofer  above  the  middle  height  his  bearing  was  dignified 
and  commanding.  A  high,  broad  forehead  ;  eyes 
keen,  restless,  and  penetrating;  a  complexion  fresh  and  ruddy; 
a  long,  aquiline  nose  ;  a  mouth  expressive  of  mingled  gentleness 
and  decision — these  combined  to  make  up  an  aspect  which  affect- 
ed the  beholder  favorably.  When  he  opened  his  lips  the  grace 
and  sprightliness  of  his  speech,  the  mirthfulness  of  his  tone, 
his  vivacity,  his  quickness  at  repartee,  not  less  than  his  affability 
and  courtesy,  deepened  the  impression  already  made,  winning 
admiration,  and  transforming  kindly  dispositions  into  firm 
friendship  and  devoted  affection.  Yet  the  same  mouth  that 
could  gain  the  hearts  of  men  by  the  honeyed  sweetness  of  its 
words,  gave  vent  occasionally  to  biting  sarcasm  ;  and  the  nearest 
and  most  attached  of  associates  could  testify,  from  personal  ex- 
perience, that  if  Henry  of  Navarre  was  a  master  of  the  art  of 
judicious  encouragement  to  valiant  action,  he  was  certainly  also 
an  adept  in  the  use  of  the  power  of  derision,  caring  little  what 
might  be  the  past  services  of  the  unfortunate  victims  of  his 
scornful  laughter.  Some  maintained  that  the  king  readily  fur- 
gave  and  forgot  the  injuries  done  him.  On  this  point  there 
was  a  difference  of  opinion.  But  there  was  no  difference  as  t«> 
the  facility  with  which  Henry  banished  from  mind  all  recollec- 
tion of  the  good  offices  of  his  followers.  In  the  domain  of  pri- 
vate morals  the  conflict  of  warring  tendencies  in  Henry's  na- 
ture was  most  sharply  defined.  Noble  aspirations,  elevating 
him  above  the  plane  reached  by  the  majority  of  the  men  of  his 
day,  wrestled  with  grovelling  tastes  which  tended  to  degrade 
him  to  the  lowest  depths  of  a  purely  sensual  existence.  Tl ni- 
ne often  seemed  likely  to  prove  in  turn  the  glory  and  the  shame 
of  his  age. 

Such  was  Henry  of  Navarre,  Henry  the  Fourth  of  France- 
Henry  the  Great,  as  his  admiring  subjects  not  improperly  snr- 
named  him — so  grand  a  man,  in  some  aspects,  that  we  wonder 


1610.  AFTER   THE   EDICT.  491 

that  his  character  should  have  been  marred  by  such  blemishes — 
so  faulty  a  man,  from  other  points  of  view,  that  we  marvel  that 
lie  could  ever  have  been  esteemed  magnanimous  ;  an  enigma  to 
his  contemporaries,  scarcely  less  an  enigma  to  succeeding  gener- 
ations ;  a  man  of  singular  strength  and  of  singular  weakness ;  a 
compound  of  rare  virtues  and  extraordinary  vices ;  keen  of  per- 
ception, acute,  persevering,  patient  of  fatigue,  buoyant,  courage- 
ous, affable,  witty,  a  cheery  companion,  impetuous,  forgetful  of 
danger,  a  leader  in  perilous  enterprises,  with  a  jest  for  every 
emergency,  with  an  encouraging  word  or  look  for  each  of  his 
followers — a  general,  in  short,  for  whom  not  one  of  his  Hugue- 
not soldiers  but  would  have  deemed  it  a  privilege  to  lay  down 
life  ;  a  man,  on  the  other  hand,  of  excessive  fondness  for  pleas- 
ure, a  very  Samson,  who  more  than  once  allowed  his  locks  to 
be  shorn,  who  more  than  once  suffered  himself  to  be  robbed  of 
his  strength  to  gratify  a  Delilah ;  selfish,  even  where  he  was 
most  liberal ;  calculating,  where  he  appeared  most  disinterested  ; 
fickle  in  his  love,  whether  to  man  or  to  woman  ;  not  incapable 
of  suffering  a  discarded  mistress,  and  the  mother  of  his  child,  to 
die  of  want  and  neglect  within  a  stone's  throw  of  his  castle,  or 
of  arranging  beforehand  for  the  unmerited  discomfiture  in  un- 
equal controversy  of  a  brave  and  loyal  Duplessis  Mornay,  when 
the  discomfiture  would  inure  to  some  fancied  advantage  of  the 
king. 

Yet  neither  the  patriot  nor  the  lover  of  religious  freedom  can 
be  oblivious  of  the  claims  of  the  first  Bourbon  king  of  France 
to  the  gratitude  of  posterity.  His  was  the  sagacious  intellect, 
his  the  unfaltering  courage,  his  the  steady  hand  that  brought 
order  out  of  the  confusion  into  which  the  civil  wars  of  the  latter 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century  had  plunged  his  country.  It  was 
Henry  of  Kavarre  who  never  despaired  of  the  commonwealth, 
even  in  the  darkest  hour  of  the  conflict  with  the  League.  It 
was  he  who  restored  to  France  her  rightful  position  among  the 
leading  states  of  western  Europe.  It  was  this  intrepid  and 
adventurous  king  who,  had  his  life  been  spared,  might  have 
undertaken,  with  more  hope  of  success  than  any  other  monarch 
of  his  age,  to  realize  the  fanciful  but  brilliant  dream  of  a  uni- 
versal Christian  Republic,  ever  pacific    because   ever   settling 


492      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Cu.  XV. 

the  controversies  that  might  arise  by  peaceful  arbitration — a 
Christian  Republic  formed  by  the  union  of  fifteen  states,  as 
nearly  equal  in  power  as  possible,  which  should  bury  their  mut- 
ual animosities  the  better  to  wage  war  against  the  infidel.1  The 
expectation  that  the  adherents  of  the  Lutheran,  the  Reformed, 
and  the  Roman  Catholic  religions,  renouncing  the  insane  en- 
deavor to  obtain  exclusive  sway  throughout  the  world,  would 
agree  to  dwell  together  in  charity  and  tolerate  each  other  as 
members  of  one  Christian  communion,  might  be  chimerical 
when  applied  to  the  whole  of  Europe.  Yet  it  was  but  the  ex- 
pansion of  that  which  Henry  had  undertaken  to  do,  by  means 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  for  the  single  kingdom  of  France  of 
that  which  he  had  succeeded  in  accomplishing,  so  far  as  mere 
legislation  can  effect  anything.  For  this  the  Huguenots — and 
not  the  Huguenots  alone,  but  every  well-wisher  of  his  country, 
and  every  believer  in  the  sacred  right  of  liberty  of  conscience — 
owed  the  murdered  king  so  great  a  debt  of  gratitude  that  they 
freely  forgot  every  foible  of  his  character,  even  to  his  recreancy 
to  the  faith  in  which  he  was  brought  up  and  which  he  had  in- 
sincerely abjured,  and  remembered  him  only  as  the  greatest 
benefactor  of  France. 

Of  the  military  designs  which  Henry  cherished,  of  the  victo- 
ries he  hoped  to  win  at  the  head  of  the  main  body  of  his  army 
in  Germany,  of  the  blows  he  expected  Lesdiguieres  to  strike  at 
the  supremacy  of  the  house  of  Habsburg  in  Italy,  of  contem- 
plated achievements  in  the  interest  of  nations  long  oppre 
by  the  dread  of  a  Spanish  world-empire,  this  is  not  the  place  to 


1  The  reader  need  scarcely  be  reminded  that  the  fifteen  sovereign  "  domina- 
tions" in  question  were  to  be,  first,  the  six  hereditary  monarchies  of  France, 
Spain,  Great  Britain,  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Savoy,  or  Northern  Italy  ;  second, 
the  six  elective  monarchies  of  the  Empire,  Poland,  Hungary.  Venice.  Bohemia, 
and  the  States  of  the  Church,  or  Southern  Italy  ;  and,  third,  the  three  consoli- 
dated republics  of  the  Low  Countries,  Switzerland,  and  Italy.  It  would  ap- 
pear that  the  matter  formed  the  subject  of  frequent  conversation  and  discus- 
sion between  Henry  IV.  and  the  Duke  of  Sully,  and  was  broached  bv  the 
latter  when  sent  on  an  embassy  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  in  1601.  The  queen's 
death  retarded,  the  assassination  of  the  king  put  an  end  to,  the  prosecution 
of  the  scheme.  See  Memoires  de  Sully  (edition  of  1663),  ii.  8,  399,  400  ;  iii. 
45,  46,  453  ;  iv.  752,  etc. 


1610.  AFTER   THE   EDICT.  493 

speak.  Whatever  were  his  designs — whether  practicable  or  vi- 
sionary, whether  their  realization  might  have  conduced  to  the 
pacific  settlement  of  those  great  questions  which  were  to  con- 
vulse Christendom  in  the  succeeding  century,  or  would  but  have 
served  to  precipitate  the  inevitable  catastrophe — the  blade  of  a 
single  obscure  enthusiast  sufficed  in  an  instant  to  frustrate  them 
all.  From  the  hands  of  a  monarch  of  wonderful  quickness  and 
grasp  of  intellect,  a  man  of  singular  vitality  and  in  the  flower 
of  his  manly  vigor,  the  sceptre  slipped  into  those  of  a  son,  a 
minor,  the  child  of  a  queen  of  Italian  parentage,  and,  as  well  by 
instinct  as  by  education,  inimical  to  the  enterprises  of  her  hus- 
band. Maria  de'  Medici  might  be  guiltless  of  complicity  in  the 
assassination  of  Henry  of  ^savarre,  but  that  her  sympathies 
were  altogether  with  those  who  profited  by  its  perpetration 
there  can  be  no  doubt. 

The  deed  of  Ravaillac  has  remained  a  mystery  even  down  to 

the  present  time,  and  will  probably  remain  a  mystery  for  all 

time.      The  murderer  was  not,  indeed,  at  once  de- 

Ravaillac's  i-ii  i  •      i  •  1 

Crimea  spatched  by  the  indignant   bystanders,  as  had  been 

the  case  with  Jacques  Clement.  There  was,  therefore, 
a  better  prospect  of  success  in  discovering  the  instigators  of  the 
murder  of  Henry  the  Fourth  than  there  had  been  of  ascertaining 
the  authors  of  the  murder  of  Henry  the  Third.  But  the  fright- 
ful tortures  to  which  Ravaillac  was  subjected  were  ineffectual 
to  compel  him  to  disclose  the  truth,  and,  whether  the  judges 
were  too  clumsy  or  too  timid,  his  secret  seems  to  have  died  with 
him,  wThen  he  was  at  last  put  to  death,  torn  asunder  by  four 
horses,  less  than  a  fortnight  after  the  commission  of  his  crime. 
The  guilt  was  laid  at  the  door  of  Spain,  whose  exploits  in  the 
matter  of  assassination  had  been  notorious  both  before  and 
since  the  time  when  Balthazar  Gerard  shot  William  of  Orange 
on  the  staircase  at  Delft;  or  at  the  door  of  the  Duke  of 
Epernon,  who  sat  on  Henry's  right  in  the  carriage  when  Ra- 
vaillac stabbed  him — Upernon,  from  whom  no  deed  of  treach- 
ery was  unlooked  for,  a  deadly  enemy  of  the  king,  albeit  that 
king  had  condescended  to  call  him  "  my  friend,"  when  gleefully 
announcing  to  him  Duplessis  Mornay's  discomfiture,  just  ten 
years  before ;  or  at  the  door  of  the  Jesuits,  who,  despite  the 


tificate  of  the 
innocence 
the  Jesuits. 


494:      THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.    Ch.  XV. 

past  favors  of  the  monarch,  and  despite  the  fact  that  Father 
Cotton,  a  member  of  their  order,  was  the  royal  confessor,  never 
forgot  their  inherited  allegiance  to  the  crown  once  worn  by 
Gondy'scer-  Philip  the  Second.  The  Bishop  of  Paris,  Cardinal 
b0fe  Gondy,  it  is  true,  was  at  the  pains  to  clear  the  rever- 
end fathers  of  the  aspersion  in  a  formal  document, 
solemnly  attested  and  given  under  his  hand  and  seal,  on  the 
twenty-sixth  of  June,  whereby  he  declared  that  the  rumors 
afloat  were  impostures,  calumnies,  and  malicious  fabrications,  to 
the  disadvantage  of  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Apostolic  religion. 
Not  only  were  the  Jesuits  altogether  free  from  blame,  but  their 
Order  was,  according  to  the  writer,  as  well  for  its  doctrine  as 
for  the  good  life  of  its  members,  exceedingly  useful  to  the 
Church  of  God  and  profitable  to  the  State.1  So  far  as  it  had 
any  influence,  however,  the  certificate  of  the  bishop  tended 
rather  to  draw  attention  to  the  probability  that  the  intriguing 
society  founded  by  Loyola  had  been  concerned  in  the  misdeed, 
than  to  remove  suspicion  from  the  breast  of  any  impartial  man. 
The  reputation  of  the  apologists  of  the  Jesuits  for  strict  veracity 
did  not  rank  among  the  best ;  and  the  Huguenots  from  the  first 
held  them  responsible.  "It  is  a  great  pity,"  wrote  Dupl- 
Mornay,  only  a  day  or  two  after  hearing  the  fatal  intelligence, 
"  that  the  horror  of  our  age  has  reached  such  a  point  as  to  re- 
duce to  an  art  the  method  of  assassinating  princes,  and  that,  in 
place  of  the  hell  which  awaits  such  execrable  murderers,  men 
have  been  able  systematically  to  persuade  them  that  the  highest 
rank  of  paradise  is  reserved  for  them.  Since  the  Jesuits  are, 
next  to  the  Mohammedans,  the  first  restorers  of  this  training,  it 
will  be  a  great  marvel  if  this  blow  has  been  struck  without  their 
intervention."  8 

The  grief  of  the  Huguenots  was  intense,  their  solicitude  re- 
specting the  future  too  deep  to  be  wholly  allayed,  even   by 

1  The  attestation  of  the  Bishop  of  Paris  is  a  hrief  but  interesting  production, 
worthy  a  place  among  the  curiosities  of  literature.  It  is  reprinted,  together 
with  a  number  of  other  important  documents  relative  to  the  trial  of  Ravaillac, 
in  the  third  part  of  the  sixth  or  supplementary  volume  of  the  Memoires  de 
Conde,  published  at  the  Hague  in  1 743,  page  246. 

2  Duplessis  Mornay  to  J.  A.  de  Thou,  May  18,  1610,  Memoires,  xi.  29. 


1610.  AFTER   THE   EDICT.  495 

prompt  assurances,  offered  in  the  young  dauphin's  name,  that 
the  existing  laws  for  their  protection  would  be  conscientiously 
observed.  They  knew,  indeed,  that  the  best  interests  of  the 
commonwealth  were  bound  up  with  their  safety,  and  that  in  no 
way  could  the  peace  of  France  be  better  conserved  than  by  re- 
specting the  sanction  which  the  Edict  of  Nantes  had  received 
both  from  the  monarch  and  from  the  highest  courts  of  judi- 
cature. But  they  also  knew  that  powerful  and  sleepless  enemies 
were  only  biding  the  time  when  a  determined  attempt  to  annul 
the  tolerant  legislation  of  Henry  the  Fourth  might  be  under- 
taken with  reasonable  hope  of  success.  Whether  the  perils  en- 
vironing them  would  ultimately  be  dissipated,  or  the  catastrophe 
prove  inevitable,  was  a  question  the  answer  to  which  was  be- 
yond the  bounds  of  human  prescience. 


INDEX 


INDEX. 


Abbeville,  ii.  130. 

Able-n,  Protestant  service  at,  for  Hugue- 
nots of  Paris,  ii.  481. 

11  Academies."     See  Universities. 

Acqs,  Bishop  of,  his  plea  for  peace  and 
toleration,  i.  329. 

Agen,  virtual  capital  of  Henry  of  Na- 
varre, seized  by  Marshal  Biron,  i.  171  ; 
opens  its  gates  to  Henry  IV.,  ii.  371, 
374. 

Aignes-Mortes,  i.  42,  63,  94,  162,  203,  260. 

Aimargues,  i.  162,  190,  260. 

Aix,  i.  261  ;  ii.  276  ;  its  parliament  swears 
fidelity  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  ii.  233 ; 
and  delays  to  register  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  ii.  435. 

Alais,  i.  162,  190. 

Albret,  Duchy  of,  i.  258 ;  city  of,  ib. 

Aldobrandini,  Cardinal,  ii.  160,  470. 

Alencon,  city  of,  ii.  192. 

Alencon,  Francis,  Duke  of  (afterward 
Duke  of  Anjou),  i.  7 ;  guarded  as  a 
prisoner,  i.  8;  his  escape,  i.  70;  dupes 
the  Huguenots,  i.  71,  82;  proclaimed 
general-in-chief,  i.  89  ;  his  appanage,  i. 
94  ;  forsakes  the  Huguenots,  i.  100;  his 
character,  ib.  ;  at  Blois,  i.  127,  128 ;  is 
entrapped  by  Henry  III.  into  giving  a 
written  opinion  advocating  war,  i.  138 ; 
commands  the  eastern  army,  i.  158; 
excesses  of  his  troops,  i.  183 ;  his  con- 
templated marriage  with  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, i.  192 ;  his  death,  i.  262,  seq.  ; 
disastrous  results,  i.  265. 

Alet,  i.  190. 

Ambert,  i.  158. 

Ameline,  one  of  the  "Seize,"  put  to  death, 
ii.  282. 

Amiens,  i.  149 ;  ii.  130,  374  ;  fall  of,  March 
11,  1597,  ii.  400;  its  recapture,  Septem- 
ber, 1597,  ii.  412. 

Amours,  Gabriel  d',  Protestant  minister 
of  Henry  of  Navarre,  i.  333 ;  offers 
prayer  at  the  battle  of  Coutras,  i.  431  ; 
the  sight  long  remembered  by  the 
Roman  Catholics,  i.  432 ;  he  blames 
Navarre's   delay   after   the   victory,    i. 


440  ;  his  prophecy  respecting  the  cross- 
ing of  the  Loire,  ii.  144 ;  his  sermons 
at    Arques,    ii.    179;    his    remarks   on 
the  failure  to  attack  Paris,  ii.  187 ;  his 
prayers  at  Ivry,  ii.  197,  seq.,  201 ;  his 
remonstrances  with  Henry  TV.  on  his 
abjuration,  ii.  333,  334,  seq. 
;  Ampoule,  la  Sainte,  i.  76 ;  ii.  369,  370. 
1  Ancy  le  Franc,  i.  446,  note. 
Andelot,  M.  d\  i.  260 ;  death  of  the  sons 
of  the  elder  D' Andelot,  i.  397. 
;  Andre',  Jean  d',  a  preacher  of  the  League 

at  Rouen,  ii.  285. 
I  Andreae,  a  German  theologian,  i.  245,  401 . 
Angers,  castle  of,  i.  374 ;  a  plot  to  sur- 
prise it,  i.  375,  seq.  ;  it  falls  into  Hugue- 
not hands,  i.  377 ;  Conde  advances  to 
its  relief,  ib.  ;  peril  and  escape  of  his 
army,  i.  378 ;  pastoral  letter  of  Jean  de 
l'Espine  to  church  of,  i.  387,  note. 
j  Angers,  remonstrance  of,  1591,   ii.   251, 

seq.  ;  suppressed,  ii.  255. 
Angouleme,  i.  80. 
!  Angouleme,    Charles,    Duke    of,    natural 
son  of  Charles  IX. ,  previously  Count  of 
Auvergne,  ii.  159,  note,  174,  note,  198. 
Anjou,  i.  200. 

Anjou,  the  Duke  of.    See  Alencon,  Fran- 
cis, Duke  of. 
Anne  de  Bretagne,  ii.  273. 
Arbaleste,   Charlotte,  wife   of   Duplessis 

Mornay,  at  Montauban,  i.  219,  seq. 
Archiac,  i.  429. 
.  Arenes,  Sieur  d',  a  Huguenot  envoy,  his 
eloquent  speech,  i.  51,   55,   59,  seq.  ;  i. 
90,  98. 
Argentan,  ii.  192. 
I  Argenton,  ii.  137. 
I  Aries,  i.  261. 

:  Armada,    Invincible,  the,   ii.   29,   79 ;  its 
failure  and  destruction,  ii.  82. 
Armagnac,   Cardinal   of,   patron   of    the 

"blue  penitents,"  i.  39,  184. 
Armagnac,  County  of,  i.  258. 
Arminius,  controversy  respecting,  ii.  455. 
Arquenav,  ii.  151. 
Arques,  i.  432  ;  battle  of,  ii.  182. 
Assemblies,  political.     See  Political  As- 
semblies. 


500 


INDEX. 


Aubespine,  Sebastian  de  1',  Bishop  of 
Limoges,  i.  51. 

Aubigne',  Agrippa  d',  the  historian, 
Henri  Martin's  estimate  of,  i.  205 ;  his 
bold  words  to  Henry  III.,  i.  240,  324; 
his  advice  in  the  Huguenot  council,  i. 
334 ;  his  escape  from  the  enterprise  of 
Angers,  i.  379,  seq. ;  blames  Navarre's 
delay  after  the  victory  of  Coutras,  i. 
439;  his  good  advice,  after  Henry  of 
Navarre's  accession,  ii.  169 ;  he  dis- 
suades the  king  from  abjuring,  ii.  340  ; 
he  is  interrogated  by  Henry  IV.  as  to 
the  unpardonable  sin,  ii.  361 ,  362 ;  he 
dissuades  the  Huguenots  from  joining 
the  Duke  of  Bouillon,  ii.  473. 

Angoumois,  i.  261. 

Auch,  i.  258. 

Audiat,  Louis,  attempts  to  discredit  a  nar- 
rative of  Agrippa  d' Aubigne',  ii.  9,  note. 

Auger,  a  Jesuit,  i.  232. 

August,  the  month  of,  esteemed  by  the 
"  Seize  "  to  be  propitious  to  the  cause 
of  religion,  ii.  280. 

Augustus,  Elector  of  Saxony,  L  253. 

Aumale,  Chevalier  d\  loses  his  life  in  an 
attack  on  Saint  Denis,  ii.  244. 

Aumale,  the  Duke  d'  (historian),  i.  78. 

Aumale,  the  Duke  d\  i.  73, 113,  158,  292, 
297,  346;  ii.  30,  44,  199. 

Aumont,  Marshal  d\  i.  331,  423 ;  ii.  103, 
149,  170,  175,  181,  198,  232,  235. 

Auneau,  i.  453. 

Aunis,  i.  261. 

Aups,  ii.  297. 

Authion,  i.  378. 

Autun,  Bishop  of,  i.  146. 

Auvergne,  ii.  130 ;  success  of  royalists  in, 
ii.  233. 

Avignon,  i.  37,  186. 


II. 


Baden,  Margrave  Ernest  of,  i.  391. 

Bagneux,  ii.  184. 

Bagnols,  i.  190,  260. 

Baix,  i.  190. 

Baptism,  sacrilegious,  of  meat  as  fish,  ii. 

151. 
Bar,    Duke    of.     See    Pont   a   Mousson, 

Henry  II.,  Marquis  of. 
Barbezieux,  i.  429. 
Barjols,  ii.  297. 

Barricades,  The  Day  of  the,  ii.  49,  seq. 
Barriere,  Pierre,  attempts  to  assassinate 

Henry  IV..  ii.  367. 
Bartas,  Guillaume  de  Saluste,    Seigneur 

du  ;  his  poem  on  the  Creation,  i.  175. 
Basle,  i.  16,  49 ;  ii.  135. 
Battles,    of  Coutras,    October   20,    15S7, 

the  first  pitched  battle  gained  by  the 

Huguenots,    i.     429-437 ;    of    Arques, 

September-October,  1589,  ii.  182,  seq.; 


of  Ivry,  March  14,  1590,  ii.   196,  set}.; 

of  Pontcharra,  September  19,  1591.  ii. 
276. 

Bavaria,  Duke  Albert  of,  i.  384 

Bayard,  castle,  ii.  276. 

Bayard,  Pierre  du  Terrail,  Chevalier,  iL 
276. 

Bayeux,  ii.  192. 

Bay  on,  i.  446,  note. 

Bayonne,  ii.  295. 

Bazas,  i.  190,  260. 

Be'arn,  i.  258,  260 ;  sale  of  crown  prop- 
erty in,  ii.  283. 

Beaucaire,  i  63,  94,  167. 

Beaufort,  i.  376. 

Beaumont,  Duchy  of,  i.  259. 

Beaune,  i.  346. 

Beaulard,  M.,  ii.  239,  240. 

Beauvais,  ii.  374. 

Beauvoir  la  Node.  i.  57,  seq.;  ii.  179,  300. 

Beauvoir-sur-mer.  ii.  67. 

Begat,  Jean,  i.  105. 

Bellay,  Cardinal  du,  ii.  378. 

Bellievre,  Pomponne  de,  Chancellor,  l. 
13 ;  opposes  war  with  the  Huguenots, 
i.  137,  210,  227;  ii.  13,  31,  35,  81 
moved,  ii.  83,  380,  437  ;  at  the  Confer- 
ence of  Fontainebleau,  ii.  464,  seq.;  his 
falsehoods  after  the  massacre 
Bartholomew's  Day.  ib. 

Berauld,  Michel,  a  distinguished  Hugue- 
not minister,  i  219,  seq.;  his  honors,  i. 
222  ;  his  controversy,  ii.  385. 

Bergerac,  Peace  of,  L  167,  168,  171,  185, 
261  ;  town  of.  i.  429  ;  Protestant  court 
of  justice  at,  ii.  75  ;  abolished,  ii.  234. 

Berne,  ii.  1 1 

Berre,  ii.  270. 

Berry,  province  of.  i.  93. 

Besme,  the  assassin  of  Admiral  Coligny, 
taken,  i.  67, 

Beutrich,  Peter,  envov  of  John  Casimir. 
i.  152. 

Beza,  Theodore,  the  reformer,  his  ser- 
vices to  the  Huguenots,  i.  15,  40  .  his 
broad  statesmanship,  L  49,  50,  51,  168, 
191,  313,  214.  254.  400,  401  ;  he  remon- 
strates against  the  abjuration  of  Henry 
IV.,  ii.  :;:!4;  rumored  conversion  of,  ii. 
470  ;  Francois  de  Sales  litem] 
bribe  him,  ii.  471.     Also,  ii.  73,  400. 

Beziers,  i.  171. 

Bigorre,  County  of,  i   - 

Biragne,  or  Birago.  Chancellor,  i. 

127  ;  his  discreditable  speech  at  the 
States  General  of  Blois,  i.  130;  his 
treacherv,  i.  424  ;  ii.  38. 

Biron,  Armand  de,  Marshal,  i.  79.  81,  154, 
158,  171,  209,  378,  42:'-;  ii.  44;  his 
price  for  recognizing  Henry  IV.,  ii. 
171,  175.  199,  seq.;  commands  the  re- 
serve at  Ivry  and  does  not  fight,  ii. 
203.  204;  his  responsibility  for  the  loss 
of  the  fruits  of  the  victory,  ii  308,  and 


INDEX. 


501 


the  failure  of  the  siege  of  Paris,  ii. 
236,  238,  2S3,  284;  his  culpable  negli- 
gence at  the  siege  of  Rouen,  ii.  287 ; 
his  lukewarmness,  ib. ;  his  disloyalty, 
ii.  291,  292  ;  his  death,  ii.  293. 

Biron,  Charles  de,  son  of  Armand  de  Bi- 
ron,  at  Ivry,  ii.  198,  seq.  ;  his  conspir- 
acy, ii.  473. 

Bishops,  non -residence  of,  i.  95. 

Blachiere,  L.,  his  pastoral  letter  to  the 
Church  of  Niort  and  Saint  Gelais,  i. 
3S7,  note. 

Blamont,  i.  446,  note. 

Blavet,  Spanish  troops  land  at,  October, 
1590,  ii.  273. 

Blois,  i.  114  (see  States  General)  ;  castle 
of,  portions  built  by  Louis  XII.  and 
Francis  I.,  ii.  99,  note. 

Bodin,  Jean,  author  of  the  "Republic," 
i.  133 ;  on  the  quorum  of  the  states 
general,  i.  151. 

Bois  Dauphin,  M.  de,  ii.  41,  374. 

Bondy,  ii.  227. 

Bonnefoy,  Bnnemond,  ii.  478. 

Bonnet,  Dr.  Jules,  i.  421. 

Bonneval,  ii.  153. 

Bordeaux,  ii.  133  ;  decree  of  its  parlia- 
ment on  the  death  of  Henry  III.,  ii. 
181  ;  dilatoriness  of  parliament  in  reg- 
istering the  Edict  of  Nantes,  ii.  435, 
436,  437. 

Bossu,  Le,  Bishop  of  Nantes;  his  abu- 
sive language  respecting  Henry  III.,  ii. 
391. 

Boucher,  Jean,  cure  of  St.  Benoist,  i. 
275  ;  his  seditious  preaching,  ii.  6,  272, 
362. 

Bouffard,  Jean  de,  Sieur  de  la  Grange,  i. 
181. 

Bouillon,  Duchy  of,  i.  443. 

Bouillon  (de  la  Marck)  Duke  of,  i.  405  ; 
nominal  commander  of  the  "  Army  of 
the  Reiters,"  i.  442,  seq.  ;  retires  to 
Geneva  and  dies,  i.  457,  458. 

Bouillon.  Henry  de  la  Tour  d'Auvergne, 
Duke  of  (see  also  Turenne,  Viscount), 
ii.  312,  345,  379,  381,  382,  408,  412,  455, 
473. 

Boulogne-sur-Mer,  i.  323. 

Bourbon,  Cardinal  Charles  of,  i.  51,  62 ; 
visits  the  Huguenot  "preche"  at  Rouen, 
i.  110 ;  at  Blois,  i.  127,  154  ;  his  words 
as  to  his  nephew,  Henry  of  Navarre,  i. 
269  ;  ha  claims  to  be  heir  presumptive, 
i.  296,  300;  his  Declaration,  Pe- 
ronne,  March  31,  1585,  i.  314,  seq.;  his 
arrogant  Petition,  June  9,  1585,  i.  336 ; 
secures  the  city  of  Soissons,  i.  346  ;  his 
joy  at  his  nephew  Conde's  death,  ii.  27  ; 
his  duplicity,  ii.  31  ;  arrested,  ii.  106, 
1 53  ;  absurd  proposition  that  he  and 
Henry  IV.  should  reign  jointly,  ii.  170  ; 
he  is  proclaimed  king  by  the  League  as 
Charles  X.,  ii.  180  ;  his  death,  ii.  213. 


Bourbon,  Cardinal  Charles  (the  younger), 
also  Cardinal  of  Vendome  (see  Rouen, 
Charles,  Archbishop  of) ;  his  ambition, 
ii.  250 ;  he  alone  objects  to  the  repeal 
of  the  proscriptive  edicts,  ii.  205,  266  ; 
he  prevents  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges 
from  being  made  a  Patriarch,  ii.  271 ; 
his  theological  attainments  ridiculed  by 
Henry  IV.,  ii.  349,  354. 

Bourbon,  Catharine  of,  sister  of  Henry 
of  Navarre,  i.  456,  note ;  ii.  348,  349 ; 
her  constancy,  ii.  468. 

Bourg,  Du,  i.  83. 

Bourges,  i.  80,  201,  379 ;  ii.  130,  373. 

Bourges,  Renaud  de  Beaune,  Archbishop 
of,  his  speech  at  the  second  States 
General  of  Blois,  ii.  88  ;  he  wishes  to 
become  a  Patriarch,  ii.  271  ;  takes  part 
in  the  Conference  of  Suresnes,  ii.  328, 
seq.;  is  present  at  the  "instruction" 
of  Henry  IV.,  ii.  349,  354. 

Bourniquet,  Viscount  of,  i.  259. 

Brandenburg,  Elector  of,  i.  253  ;  remon- 
strates with  Henry  III.,  i.  331,  402. 

Briancon,  ii.  298. 

Briatexte,  i.  190. 

Brillaut,  a  suspected  accomplice  in  the 
murder  of  Henry,  Prince  of  Conde,  ii. 
21. 

Briqueras,  ii.  298. 

Brissac,  M.  de,  i.  375  ;  ii.  46,  seq.,  270. 

Brisson,  Barnabe,  first  president  of  the 
Parliament  of  Paris,  put  to  death  by 
the  "Seize,"  ii.  277,  278;  his  death 
avenged  by  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  ii. 
282. 

Brittany,  i.  102  ;  ii.  130. 

Brouage,  i.  109,  158,  379. 

Brulart  or  Bruslart,  Secretary  of  State, 
i.  424;  removed,  ii.  84. 

Brunswick,  Dukes  of,  i.  253  ;  Duke  of, 
remonstrates  with  Henry  III.,  i.  331, 
402. 

Bulls,  monitory,  of  Gregory  XIV.,  intro- 
duce division  among  the  royalists,  and 
lead  to  the  formation  of  the  l '  tiers 
parti,"  ii.  249. 

Burgundy,  States  of,  protest  against  tax- 
ation, i.  181. 

Burleigh,  Lord,  i.  243. 

Bussy  d'Amboise,  i.  375. 

Bussy  le  Clerc,  i.  275,  292 ;  ii.  126. 


Cabrieres,  ii.  298. 

Cadiere,  la,  ii.  297. 

Caen,  i.  201,  325  ;  ii.  183,  239,  340. 

Cahors  surprised  by  Henry  of  Navarre,  i. 

305,  seq. ;  i.  289. 
Cajetan,    Cardinal,    a    papal    legate,    ii. 

188  ;  insults  offered  by  his   escort,   ii. 

190 ;  forbids  the  French  bishops  from 

assembling  at  Tours  to  consult  about 


502 


INDEX. 


the  king's  conversion,  ii.  194;  his  audac- 
ity rebuked  by  the  first  president  of 
parliament,  ii.  195,  218. 

Calais,  ii.  392. 

Calignon,  M.,  ii.  399,  411. 

Calumnies  against  the  Huguenots,  i.  170. 

Calvart,  secretary  of  Dutch  envoys,  i. 
327,  329. 

Calvin,  forged  letters  of,  i.  421  ;  his 
birthplace,  ii.  273. 

Cambray,  ii.  392. 

''Canaan,  Langage  de,"  i.  187. 

Canisy,  M.  de,  a  brave  Huguenot,  ii.  228. 

Canterbury,  the  Huguenot  worship  at,  i. 
383. 

Cany,  i.  201. 

Capefigue,  M.,  i.  204. 

Capuchins,  the,  at  Paris,  ii.  215. 

Carcassonne,  i.  171 ;  ii.  295. 

Cardinals,  the,  opposed  to  declaring  for 
the  League  until  the  latter  proves 
stronger  than  the  king,  i.  301. 

Carentan,  i.  17. 

Carouges,  M.  de,  Governor  of  Normandy, 
i.  182. 

Cartault,  i.  383. 

Casaubon,  Isaac,  one  of  the  commission- 
ers at  the  Conference  of  Fontainebleau, 
ii.  402,  seq. 

Casimir,  John,  son  of  Frederick  the 
Pious,  Count  Palatine,  i.  71  ;  promises 
to  enrol  troops  for  the  Huguenots,  i. 
77,  80  ;  enters  France  with  an  army,  i. 
87,  94,  112;  intercedes  with  Henry 
III.,  i.  152 ;  i.  243,  331,  391,  402  ;  speech 
of  his  envoy,  i.  402,  403 ;  sends  Baron 
Dohna  to  lead  the  reiters  in  his  place, 
i.  442  ;  his  connection  by  marriage  with 
the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  i.  443,  note ; 
Constable  Montmorency  remarks  about 
him,  ib.;  there  is  talk  of  electing  him 
"protector  of  the  churches,"  ii.  77. 

Casteljalcux,  i.  258. 

Castellane,  ii.  297. 

Castelmoron,  example  of  Christian  char- 
ity between  the  Roman  Catholics  and 
Protestants  at,  ii.  441 ,  442. 

<Castelnaudary,  i.  171,  289. 

Castillon,  i.  201,  395,  396. 

Castres,  capture  of,  i.  17,  63  ;  i.  329  ; 
seneschal's  court  at,  ii.  75. 

(Catharine  de'  Medici,  regent  on  death  of 
Charles  IX.,  i.  7;  summons  Alencon 
and  Navarre,  ib. ;  her  letter  to  Henry 
III.,  i.  8;  her  salaried  spies  in  Ger- 
many, i.  16;  advises  war  against  the 
Huguenots,  i.  28  ;  patronizes  the  *'  black 
penitents,"  i.  39;  favors  peace,  i.  28; 
her  surprise  at  Huguenot  demands,  i. 
54 ;  urges  the  envoys  to  offer  better 
terms,  i.  58  ;  on  the  massacre,  i.  00  ; 
derides  the  envoy  of  the  Politiques,  i. 
62  ;  resolves  that  Montbrun  shall  die, 
j.  67  ;  her  grief  at  Alencon's  escape,  i. 


71 ;  makes  a  hollow  truce,  i.  80  ;  treats 
with  Conde  and  Casimir,  i.  89 ;  is  ob- 
stinate on  two  points,  i.  91  ;  at  States 
General  of  Blois,  i .  128  ;  pronounces 
against  toleration  of  Protestantism,  i. 
135  ;  declares  for  peace,  i.  154,  seq. ;  her 
raillery,  i.  157  ;  i.  172  ;  her  banquet  at 
Chenonceaux,  i.  lfeO;  brings  about  a 
cenference  with  Henry  of  Navarre  at 
Nerac,  i.  186,  seq. ;  her  ladies  affect 
biblical  phraseology,  i.  186;  her  re- 
mark on  Navarre's  exploit  at  Fleu- 
rance,  i.  189;  her  discourteous  reception 
of  Michel  Berauld,  i.  219  ;  her  dealings 
with  the  nuns  at  Poissy,  i.  228  ;  chides 
Auger  the  Jesuit,  i.  232  ;  she  ridicules 
the  pretensions  of  Navarre  to  the  suc- 
cession, i.  268;  her  claim  to  Cambray 
and  to  the  crown  of  Portugal,  i.  309, 
311 ;  she  goes  to  Epernay,  to  confer 
with  Guise,  i.  319;  Henry- III.  ■ 
to  leave  to  her  all  matters  of  S- 
322  ;  her  bad  counsels,  i.  831  ;  b! 
poses  a  conference  to  Henry  of  Navarre, 
i.  359  ;  her  displeasure  with  the  papal 
bull  of  excommunication,  i  373;  she  is 
charged  with  favoring  Guia 
acy  against  her  son,  i.  308  ;  her  con- 
ference with  Henry  of  Navarre  at  Saint 
Bris,  i.  407,  seq.;  she  refuses  to  enter- 
tain the  thought  of  religious  liberty,  i. 
411  ;  her  duplicity,  i.  423  ;  her  confer- 
ence with  Guise  at  Fere-en-Tardenois, 
i.  421,  425 ;  bhe  blames  her  son  for 
preventing  the  rout  of  the  Germans,  ii. 
4  ;  her  annoyance  when  Guise  comes  to 
Paris,  ii.  37;  Bhe  dissuades  Hem.  Ill 
from  ordering  Guise's  arrest,  ii.  89 : 
she  negotiates  with  the  duke,  ii.  43; 
she  is  visited  by  the  king  after  h 
sassination  of  the  1  )uk<-  of  Guise,  ii.104, 
seq.;  her  visit  bo  the  Cardinal  of  Bour- 
bon, ii.  110;  her  death,  ib.;  her  char- 
acter, ii.  Ill ;  delight  of  her  son-in-law, 
Henrvof  Navarre,  ii.  112;  her  mem- 
ory, ii.  124,  125. 

Caudebec,  ii.  2s9.  2'.H).  291. 

Caumont,  Mademoiselle  de,  i 

Caux,  Pays  de,  i.  201 . 

Cavour,  ii.  398, 

Cavriana,  Dr.  Filippo,  believes,  in  IS&b, 
that  Henry  of  Navarre  would  wil- 
lingly be  converted  to  Boman  Catho- 
licism, i.  342,  414;  his  views  on  the 
condition  of  France  after  Conde's  death, 
ii.  26,  seq. ;  on  the  plot  to  murder  the 
Duke  of  Guise,  ii.  97  ;  he  sees  marks 
of  divine  retribution  in  Gnise'a  death, 
ii.  102;  hisaccount  of  Henry  111  's  vi?it 
to  Catharine  de'  Medici,  ii.  104.  seq; 
ii.  122. 

Cayet,  a  former  Protestant  pastor,  subse- 
quently a  Boman  Catholic  and  historio- 
grapher to  the  king,  ii      -  9 


INDEX. 


503 


Chaillot,  ii.  323. 

Chalais,  i.  429 

Chaligny,  the  Count  of,  taken  prisoner  by 
the  king's  clown,  ii.  286. 

Chalons,  l.  340  ;  ii.  374. 

Chalons,  Parliament  of,  orders  the  mon- 
itory bulls  of  Gregory  XIV.  to  be 
burned,  and  his  nuncio  to  be  arrested, 
ii.  'J4S  ;  registers  the  edict  re-establish- 
ing the  edicts  of  pacihcation,  ii.  208; 
prohibits  publication  of  the  brief  of 
Clement  VIII.,  ii.  308. 

"  diamine  ardente,"  the  institution  of,  to 
make  short  work  of  the  heretics,  de- 
manded by  the  "  Seize,"  ii.  282. 

"Chambres  mi-parties,,,  i.  1)3,  100;  "tri- 
parties,"  i.  100. 

Chamier,  Daniel,  a  distinguished  Hugue- 
not minister,  i.  222  ;  ii.  402,  448. 

Champagne,  i.  200. 

Champigny,  i.  357,  358. 

Chandon,  M.  de,  ii.  380. 

Charenton,  ii.  127,  323  ;  Protestant  u  tem- 
ple "  at,  ii.  482.,  seq. 

Charite,  La,  i.  81),  158,  440. 

Charity,  Christian,  exhibited  at  Castel- 
moron,  ii.  442. 

Charles  IX.,  i.  3  ;  death  of,  i.  7. 

Chartres,  i.  193,  329  ;  ii.  130,  209 ;  taken 
by  Henry  IV.,  271  ;  the  "Virgo  pari- 
tura"  of,  ii.  272. 

Chartres,  Nicholas  de  Thou,  Bishop  of, 
ii.  349,  370. 

Chastel,  Jean,  attempts  to  murder  Henry 
IV.,  ii.  100,  30S. 

Chastes,  Aymar  de  Clermont,  Sieur  de, 
governor  of  Dieppe ;  his  confidence  in 
the  Huguenots,  i.  324,  seq. 

Chastre,  La.  i.  379 ;  ii.  44. 

Chataigneraie,  La,  massacre  at,  ii.  393. 

Chateaudun,  ii.  191. 

Chateau  Gontier,  ii.  295. 

Chateauneuf,  Viscounty  of,  i.  259. 

Chateau  Thierry,  i.  204 ;  ii.  33,  293,  374. 

Chateauvieux,''M.  de,  ii.  149. 

Chateau  Vilain,  i.  440,  note. 

Chatellerault,  ii.  130,  al. 

Chatillon,  Framois  de,  son  of  Admiral 
Coligny,  i.  6 ;  elected  governor  of  Mont- 
pellier,  i.  102,  105,  172,  184,  200;  his 
trouble  with  the  Huguenot  inhabitants 
of  Milhau,  i.  415,  seq.;  he  leads  a  force  to 
assist  the  army  of  reiters,  i.  442,  seq., 
445 ;  his  brave  and  skilful  retreat  to 
Languedoc,  i.  457  ;  1  e  is  eulogized  by 
his  opponents,  ii.  5,  75,  118;  his  brave 
defence  of  Tours,  ii.  149;  defeats  the 
League  at  Bonneval,  ii.  153,  179;  his 
bravery  at  the  attack  on  the  sub- 
urbs of  Paris,  ii.  185;  the  battle-cry 
"Saint  Bartholomew  !"  ib. ;  his  death 
1591,  ii.  275. 

Chatillon  sur  Seine,  i.  440,  note. 

Chaumont  en  Bassigny,  i.  440,  note. 


Chelles,  ii.  227. 

Chenonceaux,  i.  180. 

Chessac,  President  of  the  Parliament  of 
Bordeaux,  ii.  436. 

Chicot,  the  king's  clown,  takes  captive 
the  Count  of  Chaligny,  ii.  286. 

Chiverny,  Chancellor,  i.  327 ;  removed, 
ii.  83,  235.  372,  380. 

Chouppes,  M.  de,  i.  259 ;  ii.  388. 

Citeaux,  i.  88. 

Cities  of  refuge  demanded  by  the  Hugue- 
nots, i.  01  ;  four  offered,  i.  63 ;  eight 
granted  by  Edict  of  Beaulieu,  i.  94; 
the  same  number  by  the  Edict  of  Poi- 
tiers (Peace  of  Bergerac),  i.  107  ;  ac- 
cording to  Conference  of  Ne'rac,  i.  190  ; 
not  restored,  i.  197,  199 ;  according  to 
Peace  of  Fleix,  i.  21 1  ;  reasons  for  their 
retention,  i.  288  ;  Henry  III.  reluctantly 
allows  the  Protestants  to  keep  them  for 
one  or  two  years,  i.  290  ;  according  to 
the  Edict  of  Nantes,  ii.  419. 

Clair vaux,  Abbey  of,  i.  445,  446,  note. 

Clausonue,  i.  51,  55,  60. 

Claye,  ii.  225,  232. 

Clement  VIII. ,  Pope;  he  issues  a  brief 
for  the  election  of  a  new  and  Catholic 
King  of  France,  ii.  308  ;  he  is  intracta- 
ble, ii.  303,  364  ;  he  is  persuaded,  ii. 
300;  he  absolves  Henry  IV.,  ii.  307; 
his  displeasure  at  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 
ii.  431,  seq. 

Clement,  Jacques,  a  Dominican  monk, 
murders  Henry  III.,  ii.  154,  seq.  ;  he  is 
killed,  ii.  157;  his  anagram,  ib.,  note.; 
eulogized  by  Pope  Sixtus  V.,  ii.  162; 
an  attempt  to  prove  that  he  was  a  dis- 
guised Huguenot,  ib.;  ii.  179. 

Clerel,  i.  182. 

Clergy  reluctant  to  help  Henry  III. ,  i.  195; 
demand  that  Henry  of  Navarre  be  de- 
clared incapable  of  succeeding  to  the 
crown,  ii.  92. 

Clermont,  M.  de,  i.  376 ;  ii.  402. 

Clervant,  i.  391. 

Clery,  ii.  99. 

Cluseau,  M.  du,  ii.  66. 

Cognac,  i.  108. 

Coligny,  Gaspard  de,  Admiral,  i.  6;  his 
memory  vindicated,  i.  60,  seq. ;  ii.   264, 
464. 
;  Colonies  proposed  in  France,  i.  353. 
|  Commolet,  a  Jesuit  monk,  ii.  273,  468. 

Como,  Archbishop  of,  his  letter  in  the 
name  of  the  pope  (Gregory  XIII.),  i. 
285. 

Compiegne,  ii.  181. 

Comtat  Venaissin,  singular  compact  in, 
i.  184. 

Conde,  Henry,  Prince  of,  escapes  to  Ger- 
many, i.  15  ;  assumes  dignity  of  first 
prince  of  the  blood,  ib.;  his  Declaration, 
i.  19  ;  his  estimate  of  Beza,  i.  50,  71 , 
77,  80 ;   made  governor  of  Picardy,  i. 


504 


INDEX. 


94,  108,  109;  protests  against  the  states 
general,  i.  116 ;  refuses  to  recognize 
the  envoys,  i.  146;  his  protest,  ib.; 
to  swear  to  restore  the  cities  of  refuge, 
i.  166  ;  dispute  with  church  of  La  Ro- 
chelle,  i.  176;  seizes  La  Fere,  i.  199, 
202,  209,  216,  261,  329 ;  he  joins  Na- 
varre and  Montmorency  in  a  Declaration 
against  the  League,  i.  350 ;  he  advances 
to  the  relief  of  Angers,  i.  377  ;  peril  and 
escape  of  his  army,  i.  378,  seq.;  he  re- 
turns to  France,  i.  396 ;  he  marries 
Catharine  Charlotte  de  la  Tre'mouille, 
i.  397  ;  his  death,  March  5,  1588,  ii.  20 ; 
trial  and  imprisonment  of  his  widow 
on  suspicion  of  having  murdered  him, 
ii.  21,  seq. ;  his  death  an  irreparable 
loss  to  the  Huguenots,  ii.  22,  23. 

Condu,  Henry  II.,  Prince  of,  son  of  the 
preceding,  his  legitimacy  doubted,  ii. 
2J.,  22 ;  his  flight  from  France,  ii.  487. 

Condom,  i.  258. 

Conscience,  liberty  of,  declared  by  Pope 
Clement  VIII.  to  be  the  worst  thing  in 
the  world,  ii.  431. 

41  Consistorial  "  party  among  the  Hugue- 
nots, suspicious  of  Henry  of  Navarre, 
ii.  77. 

Conty,  Marquis  and  Prince  of,  i.  94,  423 ; 
joins  Navarre's  side  and  escapes  to 
Strasbourg,  i.  428 ;  ii.  27,  1 75,  232. 

Corbeil,  ii  211,  231,  271. 

Cosse,  Marshal,  i.  154,  210 ;  ii.  48. 

Cotignac,  ii.  297. 

Cotton,  Father,  confessor  of  Henrv  IV., 
ii.  456. 

Courlons.  i.  194. 

Court,  royal,  its  disorders,  i.  49,  74. 

Courtenay,  i.  449. 

Coutras,  i.  429;  battle  of,  October  20, 
1587,  i.  429,  seq. ;  ii.  12,  66. 

Craon,  ii.  295,  374. 

Crecy,  ii.  211. 

Cristin,  Father  Pierre,  a  second  Demos- 
thenes, ii.  214. 

Croix  Chapeaux,  i.  427,  435. 

Crome,  one  of  the  "Sixteen,"  ii.  277. 

Cugieres,  i.  83. 

Cugy,  i.  422. 

Cuq-Toulza,  i.  221. 


I>. 

Damville,  Henri  de  Montmorency,  Duke 
of,  marshal,  governor  of  Languedoc,  i. 
12  ;  quarrels  with  Parliament  of  Tou- 
louse, i.  17  ;  his  morals,  i.  23  ;  his  inter- 
view with  Henry  III.  at  Turin,  i.  30 ; 
union  with  Huguenots,  i.  36,  48,  82, 
83 ;  protests  against  states  general,  i. 
116 ;  his  reply  to  the  envoys  of  the 
states  general  and  to  the  king,  i.  147  ; 
renounces  the  Protestant  alliance,  i.  159, 


160 ;  his  misunderstanding  with  the 
Huguenots,  i.  161,  seq.  ;  his  reply  to 
the  charges  against  him,  i.  163,  171  ; 
having  become  Duke  of  Montmorency, 
on  the  death  of  his  brother  Fra 
he  successfully  resists  the  attempt  of 
Henry  III.  to  deprive  him  of  the  gov- 
ernorship of  Languedoc,  i.  227,  seq.;  dis- 
loyalty of,  i.  235  ;  he  renews  his  alliance 
with  Henry  of  Navarre,  i.  349,  and 
joins  in  a  declaration  again-- 
League,  i.  350;  the  efforts  of  Guise  to 
win  him  over,  i.  362,  363  ;  his  pi 
tation,  i.  364  ;  ii.  75  ;  stands  aloof  from 
the  second  states  general  of  Blois,  ii. 
84. 

Dauphin,  Prince,  son  of  the  Duke  of 
Montpensier,  i.  18,  1'.'.  155. 

Dauphiny,  the  Huguenots  in,  i.  17-. 

David,  Nicholas,  i.  122. 

Davila,  the  historian,  on  the  instrumen- 
tality of  the  League  in  bringing  Henry 
of  Navarre  to  the  throne,  ii.  146. 

Davila,  Luigi,  ii.  37. 

Delpeuch,  ii.  131. 

Democratic  tendencies  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, i.  15'.) ;  ii.  77. 

Denmark,  King  of  (Frederick  II.)  remon- 
strates with  Henry  III.,  i.  404. 

Deputies  general  of  the  Huguei 
reside  at  Paris,  elected  by  tue  political 
assembly  of  Sainte  Foy.  ii.  4-18  . 
excellent  services  down  to  the  t 
Revocation,  ii.  449.  450;  the  mi 
their  selection,  ii.  450,  451. 

Derby,  Earl  of,  sent  to  invest  Henry  III. 
with  the  insigna  of  the  Order  of  the 
Garter,  i.  311. 

Desbordes,  Mender,  a  deputy  general,  ii. 
450. 

Diana  of  Montmorency,  protests  in  the 
name  of  Queen  Louise',  ii 

Die,  Protestant  university  at.  ii.  477. 

Dieppe,  Huguenot-  of,  trusted  by  the 
governor,  i.  324,  seq.  :  their  exodus,  i. 
883;  ii.  182,  seq.  ;  ii  37H ;  their  "'tem- 
ples,'" or  churches,  ii.  480,  48L 

Dijon,  i.  88.  92,  166,  181,  364  :  d 

ness   of  its   parliament   in  registering 
the  edict  of  Nantes,  ii.  435. 

Dissection  of  the  bodies  of  malefactors 
permitted,  ii.  478. 

Donna,  Baron,  a  brave  but  incompetent 
general,  leads  the  army  of  the  i 
(1587)  in  John  CasiimVs  place,  i.  442; 
leaves  the  Duchy  of  Lorraine  unharmed, 
i.  442,  and  disregard <  Navarre's  orders 
to  come  to  him,  i.  446  ;  route  taken  by 
his  army,  ib.,  note;  attacked  by  (luise 
at  Vimory,  i.  44'.' ;  his  personal  combat 
with  Mayenne,  ib.  ;  the  Swiss  resolve 
to  return  home.  i.  451. 

Dombes.  Prince  of,  ii.  295. 

Domfront,  i.  16;  ii  192. 


INDEX. 


505 


Dormans.  Huguenot  defeat  at,  i.  79. 

Dress,  extravagance  in,  rebuked  by  the 
Synod  of  La  Uoehelle,  i.  217,  and  by 
individual  churches,  i.  218,  seq.;  of 
Henry  III.,  i.  310. 

Dreux,  Henrv  IV.  besieges,  ii.  195. 

Drion,  M.,  i.  209. 

Dionne,  river,  i.  429. 

Duchelar,  i.   51. 

Duplessis,  Mornay,  i.  235,  240,  254,  260; 
his  advice  to  Henry  of  Navarre  when 
the  latter  becomes  heir  presumptive  of 
the  crown,  i.  270  ;  his  letters,  as  secre- 
tary of  Henry  of  Navarre,  i.  827,  328 ; 
he  is  unsuspicious  of  his  master's  pro- 
fessions of  willingness  to  be  instructed, 
i.  343  ;  justifies  his  master's  delay  after 
the  victory  of  Coutras.  438,  seq  ;  his 
blameless  administration  of  the  Hugue- 
not finances,  ii.  78  ;  his  letters  to  Henry 
of  Navarre  and  to  Beza,  after  the  death 
of  Guise,  ii.  114;  the  writer  of  Navarre's 
appeal  from  Chatellerault,  ii.  140 ; 
negotiates  for  Navarre  with  Henry  III. , 
ii.  141  ;  he  is  appointed  governor  of 
Saumur.  ii.  143  ;  his  advice  to  Henry 
IV.  on  his  accession,  ii.  175,  seq.  ;  he 
draws  up  a  bill  for  the  relief  of  the 
Protestants,  which  Henry  IV.  approves, 
but  subsequently  recalls,  ii.  235  ;  he 
dissuades  Henry  from  writing  to  Greg- 
ory XIV.,  ii.  259;  he  is  thanked  for  his 
services  by  the  loyal  parliament  of 
Tours,  ii.  270;  his  embassy  to  Queen 
Elizabeth,  ii.  300  ;  his  negotiation  with 
Villeroy,  ii.  301  ;  his  difficult  position, 
ii.  303  ;  he  contemplates  an  instruction 
of  the  king  by  full  and  fair  discussion, 
ii.  306,  307 ;  he  dissuades  him  from 
abjuring,  ii.  341  ;  he  is  ineffectually 
begged  by  Henry  IV.  to  come  to  court, 
ii.  346,  347 ;  he  secures  that  the  Protes- 
tants be  not  invited  to  the  king's  "  in- 
struction," ii.  347  ;  he  shows  Henry  IV. 
the  dangers  of  the  course  on  which  he 
has  entered,  ii.  376,  seq.;  381,  382, 
396,  398,  409 ;  his  view  of  the  hope- 
ful condition  of  the  Huguenot  churches, 
ii.  440 ;  he  publishes  a  book  on  the 
Eucharist  which  greatly  annoys  Henry 
IV.,  ii.  457  ;  the  king's  sharp  words  to 
him,  ii.  458  ;  his  remonstrance  with  the 
king  for  his  injustice,  ii.  460  ;  the  sixty 
alleged  "  errors,"  ii.  461  ;  his  contro- 
versy with  the  Bishop  of  Evreux  at  the 
conference  of  Fontainebleau,  ii.  462, 
seq.  ;  his  unmerited  discomfiture,  ii. 
466,  467,  468 ;  on  the  art  of  assas- 
sinating princes  as  taught  by  the 
Jesuits,  ii.  494. 

Duranti,  President,  of  Toulouse,  his 
character,  ii.  130,  131  ;  he  is  murdered 
by  the  League,  ii.  132. 

Durlach,  i.  391. 


Edicts,  Declarations,  and  Ordinances, 
Royal:  "Edict  of  January"  (January 
17,  1562),  i.  5  ;  edict  of  Beaulieu,  end- 
ing fifth  civil  war,  May,  1576.  i.  93  ; 
edict  of  Poitiers,  September,  1577,  end- 
ing the  sixth  civil  war,  i.  165,  seq.;  dec- 
laration against  Navarre,  June  3,  1580, 
i.  202,  note ;  articles  of  Fleix,  Novem- 
ber, 1580,  i.  211;  declaration  of  St. 
Germain,  November  11,  1584,  against 
the  League,  i  295  ;  edict  of  Paris, 
March  28,  1585,  against  the  same,  i. 
313,  814;  declaration  of  Henry  III.,  in 
answer  to  the  declaration  of  Pe'ronne 
of  the  League,  i.  317,  seq.;  proscrip- 
tive  edict  of  Nemours,  July  18,  1585, 
abolishing  all  exerciteof  the  Protestant 
religion  in  France,  i.  345  ;  declaration 
of  October  7,  1585,  shortening  the  term 
of  grace,  i.  870 ;  edict  of  Union,  July, 
1588,  ii.  55,  seq.;  its  secret  articles,  ii. 
57 ;  it  is  again  sworn  to  and  pro- 
claimed to  be  a  fundamental  law  of  the 
kingdom,  ii.  89 ;  declaration  of  St. 
Cloud,  by  Henry  IV.,  August  4,  1589, 
ii.  174  ;  declaration  of  Mantes,  July, 
1591,  abrogating  the  edicts  of  July, 
1585  and  1588,  and  re-establishing  the 
edict  of  1577,  ii.  262-266  ;  registered  at 
Tours  and  Chalons,  ii.  268  ;  edict  of 
Folembray,  in  favor  of  the  Duke  of 
Mayenne,  ii.  372  ;  proposed  ordinance 
of  Mantes,  ii.  381  ;  edict  of  1577  again 
registered,  ii.  385 ;  edict  of  Nantes, 
April  13,  1598,  ii.  414,  seq. 

Education,  solicitude  of  the  Huguenots 
for,  ii.  76,  474,  seq. 

Egmont,  Count,  at  Ivry,  ii.  196,  seq. 

Elbene,  Abbe  d',  i.  327 ;  favors  the  murder 
of  Guise,  ii.  38. 

Elbeuf,  Marquis  of,  i.  113,  297;  ii.  44, 
106,  372. 

Elizabeth,  widow  of  Charles  IX.,  her 
mourning,  i.  9. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  of  England,  sends  good 
advice  to  Henry  III.,  through  Lord 
North,  i.  27  ;  intercedes  for  the  Hugue- 
nots, i.  65  ;  her  promises,  i.  152;  favors 
a  universal  league  among  Protestants, 
i.  244 ;  the  object  of  a  conspiracy  be- 
tween the  Guises  and  Philip  II. ,  i.  284  ; 
sends  Lord  Derby  to  invest  Henry  III. 
with  the  insignia  of  the  Order  of  the 
Garter,  i.  31 1 ;  remonstrates  with  Henry 
III.,  i.  330,  404;  sends  money  to  help 
Henry  of  Navarre,  i.  440  ;  Henry  III. 
tries  to  influence  her  to  intercede  with 
Henry  of  Navarre  to  become  a  Roman 
Catholic,  ii.  14,  seq.;  she  is  burned  in 
effigy  at  Paris,  ii.  58  ;  she  sends  money 
and  troops  to  Henry  IV.,  ii.  184,  283  ; 
she  blames  his  tender-heartedness,    ii. 


506 


INDEX. 


223,  224;  her  capriciousness,  ii.  299, 
300 ;  attempt  of  Henry  IV.  to  deceive 
her  as  to  his  approaching  "instruc- 
tion," ii.  311-313  ;  her  letter  after  his 
abjuration,  ii.  356,  357. 

Embrun,  i.  224. 

Embrun,  Archbishop  of,  ii.  92. 

England,  proposed  invasion  of,  i.  284  ; 
the  plot  laid  bare,  i.  285  ;  atrocities  re- 
ported to  be  perpetrated  on  Roman 
Catholics  in,  i.  312,  313. 

Entragues,  Clermont  d',  ii.  149,  169. 

Epernay,  i.  319 ;  ii.  293. 

Epernon,  Jean  Louis  de  la  Valette,  Duke 
of,  a  minion  of  Henry  III.,  i.  226-229  ; 
he  is  betrothed  to  Christine  de  Vaude- 
mont,  i.  227  ;  he  begs  Navarre  to  be- 
come a  Roman  Catholic,  i.  271  292, 
378,  423  ;  his  pretended  reconciliation 
with  Guise,  i.  426  ;  Henry  creates  him 
admiral  on  the  death  of  the  Duke  of 
Joyeuse,  i.  437 ;  he  is  accused  by  Guise 
of  shielding  the  retreating  army  of  the 
reiters,  l.  454 ;  he  is  censured  by  the 
people,  ii.  3,  13,  28;  goes  to  take 
possession  of  Rouen,  ii.  33 ;  Guise  de 
mands  his  removal,  ii.  44  ;  the  king  dis- 
misses him,  ii.  53  ;  his  discontent 
after  the  accession  of  Henry  IV.,  and 
his  withdrawal  from  court,  ii.  1 76  ;  let- 
ter of  the  king  to  him,  ii.  466,  489, 
490  ;  he  is  suspected  of  the  murder  of 
Henry  IV.,  ii.  493. 

Esparron,  ii.  276. 

Espeisses,  M.  d\  President  of  the  loyal 
Parliament  of  Tours,  makes  an  absurd 
proposal  to  associate  Henry  IV.  and  his 
uncle,  Cardinal  Bourbon,  in  the  royal 
authority,  ii.  170. 

Espine,  Jean  de  1',  his  pastoral  letter  to 
the  Church  of  Angers,  i.  387,  note  ;  he 
remonstrates  with  Henry  IV.  on  the 
abjuration,  ii.  334. 

Essex,  Duke  of,  ii.  300. 

Este,  Cardinal,  i.  154. 

Esther,  Madame,  a  discarded  mistress  of 
Henry  IV.,  her  death,  ii.  344. 

Estrees,  Gabrielle  d',  Duchess  of  Beau- 
fort, mistress  of  Henry  IV.,  ii.  334, 
353,  360. 

Etampes,  ii.  154,  191. 

Evreux,  Bishop  of.  See  Sainctes,  Claude 
de,  and  Perron,  du,  Bishop. 

Exilles,  ii.  276. 


Falaise,  ii.  192. 

Famine  in  Paris,  ii.  214,  seq. 

Paye,  M.  de  la,  ii.  353. 

Fecamp,  ii.  379. 

Federation,  Protestant,  i.  243,  seq. 

Fere  en  Tardenois,  i.  424. 

Fere,  La,  seized  by  Conde,  i.  199  ;  taken 


by  Matignon,  i.  209,  260  ;  garrisoned  by 
the  Spaniards,  ii.  286  ;  siege  of,  ii  394 

Feria,  Duke  of,  ii.  320,  seq.;  326. 

Feudalism,  revival  of,  i.  12,  160  ;  in  con- 
flict with  the  new  favorites,  L  178. 

Feydeau,  M.,  ii.  379. 

Figeac,  i.  188,  190,  211 ;  tenth  National 
Synod  at,  1579,  i.  196. 

Fismes,  ii.  374. 

Flagellants,  the,  i.  38. 

Fleix,  peace  of  (1580),  i.  209,  seq.;  infrac- 
tions of,  i.  223. 

Fleurance  surprised  by  Henry  of  Navarre, 
i.  188,  189. 

Foix,  county  of,  i.  258 ;  city  of,  ib. 

Foix,  Paul  de,  his  noble  plea  for  relig- 
ious toleration,  i.  31. 

Folembray,  edict  of,  ii.  372. 

Fontainebleau,  conference  of,  May  4, 
1600,  ii.  462,  seq. 

Fontenay  le  Comte,  captured  by  Mont- 
pensier,  i.  43 ;  by  the  Huguenots,  i. 
420  ;  ii.  374.  393. 

Force,  La,  Marquis,  ii.  488. 

Forget,  secretary  of  Henry  IV.,  ii.  380. 

"  Formula  Concordiae,"  i.  245. 

"Forty-five,"  the,  a  body-guard  of  the 
king,  l.  321  ;  ii.  44,  101. 

Fosseuse,  La,  Mademoiselle  de,  i.  204. 

Foueaud,    Jacques,     martyrdom    of 


seq. 


See, 


his 
espe- 


Lan- 


two  daughters,  ii.   6, 
cially,  ii.  9,  note. 
j  Fourquevaulx.    his  description    of 
guedoc,  i.  95,  96. 

France,  general  confusion  of,  i.  82. 

Francis  1.,  i.  3. 

Francis  II.,  i.  3. 

Francois  de  Sales  (St.)  attempts  to  bribe 
the  reformer  Theodore  Beza  to  become  a 
Roman  Catholic,  ii.471 ;  his  mode  of  con- 
verting the  district  of  Chablais,  ii.  472. 

Frankfort,  i.  177.  440;  city  of,  remon- 
strates with  Henry  III.,  i."  4(>2. 
I  Fraternities  (see  Flagellants),  help  in  for- 
mation of  the  League,  i.  106;  institu- 
tion of  the  fraternity  of  the  Annun- 
ciation, i.  231. 

Frederick   the   Pious,    Elector   Palatine, 
gives  Henry  IH.  good  advice,  i.   - 
|       77. 

Freer,  Miss,  i.  86. 

Fresne,  du,  Captain,  L  376. 

Freissinieres,  ii.  298. 

Frene  Canaye,M.du,a  commissioner  at  the 
conference  of  Fontainebleau.  ii.  462,  seq. 

Froude,  J.  A.,  on  Henry  HI.  and  the 
army  of  the  reiters,  ii.  90. 


Gaches.  Jaques,  his  memoires,  i.  206. 
Galway,  the  Earl  of,  ii.  450. 
Ganache,  La.  failure  of  the  Huguenots  at, 
ii.  118,  seq. 


INDEX. 


50' 


Gap,  i.  224. 

Gardesi,  Jean,  a  pastor  of  Montauban, 
remonstrates  boldly  with  Henry  of 
Navarre,  ii.  73. 

Garrisons,  Huguenot  distrust  of,  i.  415. 

Gau tiers,  revolt  of  the,  suppressed,  ii.  153. 

Gelosi,  I,  a  band  of  Italian  comedians,  i. 
157. 

Geneva,  i.  50 ;  taken  under  protection  of 
Henry  III.,  i.  190,  seq.  ;  the  Lords  of 
the  Council  on  the  importance  of  assist- 
ing it,  i.  243 ;  kindness  of  Henry  IV. 
toward,  ii.  469  ;  he  reduces  fort  Sainte 
Catherine,  ib. ;  Protestant  university 
at,  ii.  478. 

Gentilly.  ii.  184. 

German  Lutheran  Princes.  Their  dis- 
heartening letter  to  Henry  of  Navarre, 
i.  253 ;  his  answer,  i.  255,  seq. 

German  Protestants.  Their  intercessions 
for  the  Huguenots,  i.  400,  seq. 

Gevaudan,  i.  198,  260. 

Geydan.  M.  de,  i.  84,  85. 

Gien,  i.  447. 

Gignac,  i.  190. 

Givry,  M.  de,  ii.  170,  198,  231. 

Gondy,   Cardinal   Pierre  de,   Bishop   of 
Paris .     He  is  sent  by  the  city  of  Paris  [ 
to  confer  with  Henry  IV.  respecting  a  i 
peace,  ii.   217,  seq.;  ii.  262;  he  is  sent  J 
by  Henry  IV.  to  propitiate  the  pope,  ii.  | 
309;    but    is   forbidden    to    enter   the  j 
States  of  the  Church,  ii.  31 1  ;  he  certi-  I 
fi.es  the  innocence  of  the  Jesuits  of  all 
complicity  in  the  murder  of  Henry  IV. , 
ii.  494. 

Grammont,  Corisande  d'Andouins,  Coun- 
tess of,  a  mistress  of  Henry  of  Navarre, 
i.  437  ;  ii.  25. 

Grange,  M.  de  la,  ii.  297. 

Granvelle,  Cardinal,  i.  105. 

Grate  ins,  i.  260. 

Grec,  Captain,  i.  375,  seq. 

Gregory  XIII. ,  Pope.  His  legate  advises 
war  against  the  Huguenots,  i.  28;  he 
approves  of  a  singular  compact  with 
the  Protestants  in  the  Comtat  Venais- 
sin,  i.  185,  193  ;  is  urgent  for  the  recep- 
tion of  the  Decrees  of  Trent,  i.  242, 
285  ;  favors  the  League,  but  refuses  to 
put  his  views  on  paper,  i.  301 ;  is  dis- 
pleased at  the  pertinacity  of  Nevers,  i. 
302 ;  sends  consecrated  rosaries  instead 
of  advice,  i.  303  ;  his  death,  April  10, 
1585,  ib.  ;  his  course  condemned  by  his 
successor.  Sixtus  V.,  who  fears  that 
Gregory  may  be  suffering  the  torments 
of  purgatory,  or  hell,  for  his  complicity 
with  the  League,  i.  304,  305. 

Gregory  XIV,  Pope,  Sfondrato,  a  creat- 
ure of  Spain.  He  supports  the  League, 
ii.  247  ;  he  sends  Landriano  as  nuncio 
to  France,  ii.  247  ;  and  issues  monitory 
bulls  against  Henry  IV.     The  Parlia- 


ment of  Chalons  orders  the  bulls  to  be 
burned,  and  the  nuncio  to  be  arrested, 
ib.  ;  his  death,  ii.  308. 

Grenade,  i.  259. 

Grenoble,  the  parliament  of,  opposes  the 
Duke  of  Savoy,  ii.  189;  Lesdiguieres 
obtains  the  governorship  of  the  city,  ii. 
242,  243 ;  dilatoriness  of  the  parliament 
in  registering  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  ii. 
435. 

Gre'sivaudan,  Valley  of,  ii.  276. 

Gresille,  or  Grizelle,  i.  445. 

Grillon,  M.  de,  ii.  38. 

Grosso,  Podesta  Oldrado,  his  inscription 
on  the  Palazzo  della  Ragione  at  Milan, 
ii.  484,  485. 

Guadagny,  Abbe  de,  i.  327. 

Guarinus,  Friar,  on  Henry  IV. 's  simu- 
lated conversion,  ii.  360. 

Guernsey,  i.  379. 

Guibray,  fair  of,  i.  4. 

Guiche,  La,  ii.  13. 

Guise,  town  of,  ii.  374. 

Guise,  Henry,  Duke  of,  i.  30;  surnamed 
le  Balafre.  from  wound  received  at 
Dormans,  i.  79,  81  ;  displeasure  of 
Henry  111.  with,  i.  101  ;  his  politic 
answer  to  Henry  III.'s  request  for  ad- 
vice, i.  139,  154,  158;  his  debts,  i. 
183 ;  his  conspiracy  with  Savoy  and 
Spain,  i.  233,  seq.  ;  i.  257  ;  his  insuf- 
ficient allowance  from  Philip  II. ,  i.  268  ; 
his  ambition,  i.  283 ;  his  designs  against 
England,  i.  284,  292;  at  the  confer- 
ence of  Joinville,  i.  296,  seq.  ;  his 
monthly  receipts  from  Philip  II.,  i.  298, 
note  ;  his  duplicity,  i.  299 ;  he  is  chal- 
lenged by  Henry  of  Navarre,  i.  340 ;  but 
declines,  i.  341  ;  secures  four  cities  by 
the  Edict  of  Nemours,  i.  346 ;  prom- 
ises to  renounce  all  leagues  and  as- 
sociations, ib.  ;  his  intrigues  with  the 
Spanish  ambassador,  i.  359;  he  is  im- 
patient for  the  excommunication  of 
Henry  of  Navarre,  i.  361  ;  he  endeavors 
to  gain  over  Henry  of  Montmorency,  i. 
362  ;  he  bids  Mayenne  avoid  attacking 
the  duke,  i.  363  ;  his  anxiety  lest  peace 
should  ensue,  i.  392 ;  his  entry  into 
Paris,  i.  393 ;  his  personal  appearance, 
ib.  ;  holds  a  conference  of  the  League 
at  Ourcamp.  i.  405  ;  his  alarm  lest  peace 
be  restored,  i.  406  ;  his  annoyance  with 
Mayenne  and  his  partisans  at  Paris  for 
not  keeping  quiet,  i.  420;  strength  of 
his  party,  i.  423,  424;  his  conference 
with  Catharine  de'  Medici  at  Fere  en 
Tardenois,  i.  424,  .425;  pretended  re- 
conciliation with  Epernon,  i.  426 ;  his 
great  indebtedness,  ib.  ;  his  plans  to 
thwart  Henry  III.,  i.  448;  his  corre- 
spondence with  the  agents  of  Philip  II., 
ib.  ;  he  attacks  the  reiters  at  Vimory, 
i.    449 ;    he  magnifies   an   insignificant 


50S 


INDEX. 


action  into  a  signal  victory,  i.  450 ;  he 
surprises  the  Germans  at  Auneau,  i. 
453  ;  he  accuses  Henry  III.  and  Epernon 
of  throwing  obstacles  in  his  way,  i.  453, 
454;  his  indignation,  i.  455;  he  joins 
the  Marquis  du  Pont  and  lays  waste  the 
County  of  Montbeliard,  i.  450  ;  he  gains 
credit  for  having  routed  the  Germans, 
ii.  3;  he  is  said  to  have  received  a 
sword  blessed  by  the  pope,  ii.  0 ;  Lis 
zeal  satisfies  the  Spanish  ambassador, 
ii.  12 ;  he  consults  Mendoza  on  every 
point,  ii.  13  ;  Henry  of  Valois  fruit- 
lessly endeavors  to  win  him  back,  ib.  ; 
the  duke's  account,  ii.  14;  his  purposes, 
according  to  Dr.  Cavriana,  ii.  28;  he 
receives  his  directions  from  Philip  II. , 
ii.  29;  he  advances  to  Soissons,  ii.  30; 
his  tears  and  his  mendacity,  ii.  31  ;  he 
is  begged  to  come  to  Paris,  ii.  33 ;  his 
triumphant  entry,  ii.  35 ;  he  visits 
Catharine  de'  Medici,  ii.  30;  he  is  coldly 
received  by  Henry  III.,  ii.  37 ;  and  nar- 
rowly escapes  assassination,  ii.  30  ;  he 
ostentatiously  saves  the  lives  of  the 
Swiss  on  the  Day  of  the  Barricades, 
ii.  42;  he  shows  Davila  his  Btore  of 
weapons,  ib. ;  he  negotiates  with  Catha- 
rine de'  Medici,  ii.  43;  his  consternation 
at  the  escape  of  Henry  III.  from  Paris, 
ii.  45;  he  endeavors  to  gain  the  favor 
of  Sir  Edward  Stafford,  the  English  am- 
bassador, ii.  40,  seq.;  he  entrenches  him- 
self in  Paris,  ii.  49;  he  compels  Henry 
III.  to  sign  the  Edict  of  Union,  ii.  55  ;  he 
is  appointed  lieutenant-general  with  al- 
most unlimited  powers,  August  4,  L588, 
ii.  78;  his  imprudence,  ii.  80;  he  is 
confident  in  the  sufficiency  of  his  pro- 
vision against  surprise  by  the  king,  ii. 
81 ;  he  secures  a  majority  of  the  dele- 
gates to  the  second  states  general  of 
Blois,  ii.  82 ;  he  chuckles  over  his  success 
in  compelling  Henry  HI.  to  renew  the 
oath  of  the  Union,  ii.87,  note;  his  annoy- 
ance at  certain  expressions  in  the  king's 
speech,  ii.  90 ;  he  is  falsely  accused  of 
complicity  with  the  Duke  of  Savoy's  in- 
vasion of  Saluzzo,  ii.  94,  95 ;  the  king 
resolves  to  murder  him,  ii.  90  ;  he  de- 
liberates respecting  his  movements,  ii. 
97 ;  he  resolves  to  remain,  ii.  98 ;  he  is 
assassinated  by  order  of  the  king,  ii. 
99,  seq.  ;  his  character,  ii.  107,  seq.  ; 
contrasted  with  his  brother,  the  Duke 
of  Mayenne,  ii.  108;  his  expectation  to 
become  constable  of  France,  ii.  109. 

Guise,  Cardinal  Louis  of,  gives  his  opin- 
ion as  to  the  toleration  of  Protestant- 
ism, i.  136;  i.  154,  297,  354,  355;  he 
is  arrested  at  Blois,  and  put  to  death, 
ii.  103. 

Guise,  the  young  Duke  of,  ii.  372,  374. 

Guitry,  i.  200,  391  ;  ii.  169,  179. 


Halot,  Du,  Captain,  i.  375,  seq. 

Hallot,  M.  de.  ii.  284. 

Haton,  Claude,  cure  of  Me'riot,  on  condi- 
tion  of  the  tiers-etat,  i.  ?:;. 

Havre  de  Grace,  ii.  285,  290,  371. 

Hennebon,  ii.  2V-). 

Henry  III.,  son  of  Henry  II.  and  Catha- 
rine de'  Medici,  horn  September  1 '.'.  1 551 : 
his  accession  to  the  throne  of  France. 
May  30,  1574,  i.  7  ;  his  joy  at  the  death 
of  Charles  IX.,  i.  10;  his  perplexity,  i. 
13;   his  flight  from   Cracow,    i.    14;   at 
Venice,   ib.;    impolitic  cession  of  Pig- 
nerol,  etc.,  i.  15;  reaches  Lyons,  i.  28; 
his  tastes  pacific,  i.  24 ;  his  first  inten- 
tions, i.  25;  receives  good  advice  from 
the  emperor,  and  other  princes,  i. 
prejudiced  against  the  Huguenot-,  i.  29; 
submits  the  question  of  peace  or  war  to 
his  council,  i.   31  ;  resolves  upon 
i.  33  ;  his  reply  to  the  Germans  and  to 
the  Protestants  of  Languedoe.  i.  ■ 
his    correspondence    with    the    • 
palatine,  i.  34;  his  declaration  of  Oc- 
tober 13,   1574.  i.  35;  his  puerih 
tions  at  Avignon,  i.  'M  ;  joins  the  1 
lants,  i.  38;  receives  insults  at  Livron, 
i.    43  ;    marries  Louise  de   Yaudemont, 
i.  45-47;  is  crowned,   ib.;  his  d< 
to  pleasure  and  extravaganc  .  i.  47:  his 
court  "a  very  hell,"  i.  4'.t ;   his  surprise 
at  Huguenot  demands,   i. 
ates  his  innocence  of  the  mat 
makes  unsatisfactory   offers    of    | 
i.  63 ;  resolved  that  Montbrun  shall  die, 
i.  tu  ;   his  extravaganc-  and    let* 
i.  75,  7(5;  orders  levies  of  troops  abroad, 
i.  80;  his  vain  attempts  to  raise  money, 
i.  81 ;    Ins    whimsical   revenge  on  the 
Parisians,     i.    81  ;     his    in:; 
peace,  i.  1*2  ;    publishes  an  edict  of  paci- 
fication, Beaulieo,  May,  1576,  i.  98;  in- 
sists on  execution  of  the  edict,  i.  '.,s  ;  his 
insincerity,    i.    99;    displeased    at    the 
Guises,  i.  101 ;  instructs  ofontpensier to 
suppress  leagues,  L   103;  his  j.-st  about 
Huguenots,  i.  112  ;   his  ignoble  pursuits, 
i.  110;  portrait  of,  i.   11*;  pasquinades 
against,  ib. ;  his  change  of  policy,  i.  120; 
his  pure  selfishness,  i.   121  ;  resolves  to 
make  himself  head  of  the  League,  i.  1  ','7  ; 
his  little  council,  ib.;   hifl  letters  of  De- 
cember 2.  1576,  ordering  associati 
leagues,   i.    128;     he    opens   tht 
general  of  Blois,  December  0. 
129;    his  activity  in  infiuencine 
inent    in  favor  of  the    L*one   religion." 
i.  133;  hisyaeillation,  i.  134  ;  his  declar- 
ation of  December  29,   1570,  i.   134;  he 
asks  the  written  opinions  of  his  council, 
i.  13t» ;   he  fads  to  obtain   funds,  i.  158; 
holds   a   fresh   consultation  about  the 


INDEX. 


509 


war,  i.  154,  seq.;  declares  for  peace,  i. 
156;  he  issues  the  edict  of  pacification 
of  Poitiers,  September,  1577,  closing  the 
sixth  civil  war,  i.  165 ;  he  styles  the 
Edict  of  Poitiers  his  own  edict,  i.  107  ; 
he  orders  the  League  to  cease,  ih.;  his 
degeneracy,  i.  177,  seq.  ;  his  favorites, 
i.  178 ;  his  prodigality,  i.  ISO ;  takes 
Geneva  under  his  protection,  i.  190,  seq.; 
his  devotions,  i.  192  ;  he  institutes  the 
Order  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  i.  193  ;  tries 
to  get  the  clergy's  help,  i.  195  ;  his  coun- 
ter-declaration to  Navarre's  justifica- 
tion, i.  202,  note ;  he  is  enraged  at  the 
surprise  of  Cahors,  i.  207;  makes  the 
peace  of  Fleix,  i.  210;  his  gifts  to  his 
minions,  i.  226,  227 ;  wants  to  give  Lan- 
guedocto  Joyeuse,and  Gasconyto  Eper- 
non,  i.  227 ;  he  fails  in  his  attempt  to 
remove  Montmorency,  i,  228  ;  his  infa- 
mous morals,  i.  229  ;  his  desperate  expe- 
dients to  get  money,  i.  230;  approves  the 
institution  of  the  Fraternity  of  the  An- 
nunciation, i.  231 ;  his  waning  devotion, 
i.  232  ;  his  cowardly  superstition,  i.  233  ; 
his  irresolution,  i.  236 ;  promises  to 
maintain  the  Protestants  in  peace,  i. 
237 ;  discourages  Navarre's  advances, 
and  leans  to  the  Guises,  ib.;  he  affronts 
Margaret,  his  sister,  and  Navarre,  i.  238, 
seq.;  complains  of  Segur's  mission,  i. 
251 ;  he  recognizes  Henry  of  Navarre  as 
his  presumptive  heir,  i.  208 ;  he  cord- 
ially hates  the  Huguenots,  although 
promising  them  peace,  i.  281  ;  he  ex- 
cludes them  from  office,  etc.,  i.  282  ;  he 
reluctantly  permits  the  Protestants  to 
retain  the  cities  of  refuge  for  one  or  two 
years  (1584),  i.  290;  he  is  accused  of 
favoring  Henry  of  Navarre,  i.  292 ;  issues 
a  declaration  against  the  League,  No- 
vember 11,  1584,  i.  295;  his  shabby  treat- 
ment of  the  envoys  that  come  offering 
the  sovereignty  of  the  Netherlands,  i. 
306  ;  the  magnanimous  reply  ascribed 
to  him  when  Mendoza  endeavored  to 
prevent  their  reception,  i.  308 ;  mean- 
ness of  his  real  speech,  i.  309  ;  his  insin- 
cerity, ib.  ;  his  disgusting  effeminacy  of 
dress,  i.  310  ;  his  reception  of  the  Earl 
of  Derby,  sent  to  invest  him  with  the 
insignia  of  the  Order  of  the  Garter,  i. 
311,  312  ;  he  issues  a  new  edict  against 
the  League,  March  28,  1585,  i.  313  ;  his 
undignified  counter- declaration  to  the 
declaration  of  Pe'ronne,  i.  317,  seq.;  his 
spasmodic  activity,  i.  319,  320;  his  in- 
dignation against  the  Duke  of  Mercosur, 
i.  320  ;  his  hatred  of  the  Guises,  i.  320  ; 
his  sharp  words  to  the  papal  nuncio,  ib.; 
appoints  the  body-guard  of  the  "■Forty- 
five,"  i.  321  ;  his  unconcern,  ib.  ;  pur- 
poses to  leave  matters  of  state  to  Catha- 
rine de'  Medici,  i.  322 ;  writes  to  Henry 


of  Navarre,  but  fails  to  call  in  his  as- 
sistance, i.  326  ;  receives  remonstrances 
from  Queen  Elizabeth  and  the  Germans, 
but  listens  to  bad  advice,  i.  329,  seq.; 
his  moral  turpitude,  i.  331,  332;  issues 
the  proscriptive  Edict  of  Nemours,  July 
18,  1585,  i.  345,  and  orders  parliament  to 
register  it,  i.  347 ;  his  exasperation,  i. 
353 ;  he  demands  money  of  the  Pari- 
sians and  others,  i.  354,  but  is  refused, 
i.  355  ;  he  sends  envoys  to  try  to  convert 
Henry  of  Navarre,  i.  356;  he  scoffs  at 
the  pope,  i.  308 ;  by  his  declaration  of 
October  7,  1585,  he  shortens  the  term 
of  grace,  i.  370 ;  his  levies  in  Switzer- 
land, i.  392  ;  his  diversions,  i.  397 ;  his 
injudicious  financial  edicts,  i.  398 ;  his 
insulting  reply  to  the  German  ambassa- 
dors, i.  404;  conspiracies  against  his 
life  or  liberty,  i.  419  ;  his  irresolution,  i. 
423  ;  reconciles  Guise  and  Epernon,  i. 
426;  he  gains  over  the  Swiss  soldiers 
of  Baron  Donna's  army,  i.  451  ;  he  is 
greeted  on  his  return  to  Paris  with 
demonstrations  of  joy  ii.  4 ;  he  fears  to 
punish  the  seditious  preachers,  ii.  5  ;  he 
reprimands  Parliament  and  Sorbonne, 
ii.  6  ;  he  attempts  to  convert  Palissy,  the 
Potter,  and  the  Foucaud  sisters,  ii.  7 ; 
his  revels,  ii.  10;  he  tries  to  win  over 
Guise,  ii.  13  ;  he  turns  for  help  to  Queen 
Elizabeth,  ii.  14  ;  he  sees  the  importance 
of  converting  Henry  of  Navarre,  ii.  15  ; 
his  remarkable  interview  with  Sir  Ed- 
ward Stafford,  ii.  16,  seq.  ;  his  hopes 
founded  on  the  army  of  the  reiters,  ii. 
17 ;  he  sends  M.  de  Sainte  Colombe  to 
persuade  Henry  of  Navarre  to  renounce 
Protestantism,  ii.  20  ;  plots  against  his 
life,  ii.  29;  he  is  thoroughly  deceived 
respecting  the  intentions  of  Philip  II. , 
ii.  30 ;  his  desire  for  peace,  ii.  33  ;  his 
anger  when  Guise  comes  to  Paris,  ii.  37  ; 
he  is  on  the  point  of  ordering  Guise's 
apprehension,  but  is  deterred  by  Cath- 
arine de'  Medici,  ii.  39;  he  escapes  by 
stealth  from  Paris  to  Chartres,  ii.  45 ; 
his  disappointment  at  the  conduct  of 
the  citizens,  ii.  50 ;  he  sends  out  a 
weak  protest,  ii.  51 ;  professes  undimin- 
ished hatred  of  heresy,  ii.  52,  and 
makes  injudicious  concessions,  ib.  ; 
discourages  his  loyal  subjects,  ii.  53  ; 
treachery  of  his  council,  ii.  53 ;  he  is 
forced  to  sign  the  Edict  of  Union,  July, 
1588,  ii.  55,  which  he  does  with  tears, 
ii.  57 ;  he  appoints  Guise  lieutenant- 
general  with  almost  unlimited  powers, 
ii.  78;  he  simulates  great  satisfaction, 
ii.  79  ;  he  fails  in  securing  a  majority  of 
the  delegates  to  the  second  states  gen- 
eral of  Blois,  ii.  81  ;  he  changes  the 
members  of  his  council,  ii.  83 ;  in  his 
opening  speech  he  expresses  continued 


510 


INDEX. 


hostility  to  the  Huguenots,  ii.  85,  seq. ;  ! 
he  renews  the  oath  to  the  Union,  ii.  87 ; 
he  provokes  Guise  by  certain  expres- 
sions in  his  speech,   ii.    90;  he  delays  I 
complying   with   the    demands   of   the  , 
clergy,  that  Navarre  be  declared  incapa-  I 
ble  of  succeeding  to  the  crown,  ii.  92;  i 
his  empty  professions,   ii.   93 ;    he  re- 
solves upon  murdering  Henry  of  Guise,  | 
ii.   96 ;   his  perfidious  oath,   ii.   98 ;  he 
assassinates  Guise  in  the  royal   bed-  ' 
room,   ii.   99,   seq.;  his  account  of  the  , 
matter  to    his   mother,   Catharine   de'  | 
Medici,  ii.  104,  seq.  ;  declares  his  pur- 
pose to  exterminate  the  Huguenots,  ii. 
106;  his  exhilaration  over  his  exploit, 
ii.  107 ;  after  a  short  display  of  vigor, 
he  relapses  into  sluggishness,   ii.    122, 
123 ;   fury  of  the  Parisians,   and  ana- 
grams formed  of  his  name,  ii.  124;  he 
re-enacts  the  Edict  of  Union,  ii.  133 ; 
he    releases    many   prisoners,   ib. ;    he 
tardily  sends  to  Germany  and  Switzer- 
land  for   help,    ii.    135 ;    transfers   the 
Parliament  of  Paris  to  Tours,  ii.  142 ; 
makes  a  truce  with  Henry  of  Navarre 
and  the  Huguenots,  April  26,  1589,  ii. 
142,  seq.  ;  his  meeting  with  Navarre  at 
Plessisles  Tours,  ii.  147  ;  he  is  dissuaded 
by  Navarre  from  marching  into  Brit- 
tany, ii.  148 ;  he  wears  the  white  scarf 
at  Tours,   ii.   149 ;    his  name   dropped 
from  the  canon  of  the  mass,  ii.  1 52  ;  he 
is  summoned  to  Rome  by  Pope  Sixtus 
V.,  ii.   153;  advances   successfully  to- 
ward Paris,  ii.   154  ;  he  is  wounded  by 
Jacques  Clement,  a  Dominican  monk, 
ii.  156;  his  last  hours,  ii.  157  ;  his  death, 
August  2,  1589,  ii.  ib.  ;  Did  he  die  ex- 
communicated ?     ii.     159 ;    his   strong 
Catholicity,  ii.  161  ;    his  character,   ii 
163  ;   Henry  IV.  escorts  his  remains  to 
Compi^gne,  ii.  181. 

Henry  IV.     See  Navarre,  Henry  of. 

Hesse,  Landgrave  of,  remonstrates  with 
Henry  III.,  i.  331,  402. 

Honfleur,  ii.  192. 

Hospital,  Michel  de  1',  chancellor.  His 
view  of  the  friendly  arbitration  of  the 
Huguenots,  i.  5. 

Hotman,  Charles,  originator  of  the  Pari- 
sian league,  i.  275,  seq. 

Hotman,  Francois,  author  of  Franco- 
Gallia,  a  Huguenot  writer,  i.  133  ;  his 
Brutum  Fulmen,  i.  369 ;  ii.  478. 

Huguenots.  Their  growth  before  the  ac- 
cession of  Henry  III.,  i.  3;  friendly 
arbitration,  i.  5;  in  arms,  i.  11  ;  alli- 
ance with  the  Politiques,  i.  22,  23  ;  un- 
ion with  Damville,  i.  36  ;  receive  Henry 
III.  with  insults  at  Livron,  i.  43  ;  bet- 
ter at  defence  than  at  assault,  ib.  ; 
lose  Fontenay  and  Lusignan,  i.  43 ; 
hold  a  conference  with  the  Politiques  at 


Nismes,  i.  47  ;    their  demands,   April, 
1575,  i.  52  ;    these  excite  tne  surprise 
of   Catharine   de'    Medici    and    Henry 
III.,  i.  54;  seek  the  punishment  of  the 
authors  of  the  Saint  Bartholomew  mas- 
sacre,  i.    59;    require  cities  of  refngr, 
i.  61  ;  their  geographical  distribution, 
i  78  ;  their  demands,  i.  90  ;  exact 
tributions  from  cities,   etc..   i.  92  ;    at 
Rouen,  visited  by  Cardinal  Bourbon,  i. 
110;    attacked  at  Paris,   i.   113;    their 
suspicions   aroused,    i.    1 L5  ;  their  pre- 
parations for  war,  i.    141;    have    little 
success,  i.  159 ;  the  terms  of  the  paci- 
fication  after   tl.e   sixth    civil    war,    i. 
165,    seq.  ;    their  situation    under  the 
peace  of  Bergerac,  i.   16b,   seq.  ;    they 
are  accused   of    spreading  the  plague, 
i.  170 ;  the  Huguenots  of  Beziers 
keep  the  field,  i.  Ill  ;    attempt  to  at- 
tain union  of  all  Protestants,    i.    175; 
in  the  Corntat  Venaissin  they  enter  into 
a  singular  compact,    i     lv4  ;  tin- 
mands  deemed  exorbitant  at  the  con- 
ference of  Ne'rac,  i.  189;    their  griev- 
ances, i.  2(H).  201  ;    they  are  divided  as 
to  t'.ie  seventh   civil   war,    L    - 
make  the  peace  of  Fleix,  i    210; 
quiet  after  it,  i.    212;    elect  Navarre 
"'Protector  of  the  Churches,"  but  in- 
stitute checks  on  his  authority.  : 
216;  cordially  hated  by  Henry  III.,  i. 
281  ;  and  excluded  from  office,  i 
their  steady  growth,  i.  282,  note 
are  accused    >f  a  conspiracy  to  ei  t  tin- 
throats    of    the   Roman     Cat  no!. 
Pari-,  i.  202  ;  their  discouragement  after 
the  failure  of  the  enterprise  of  Angers, 
i.  380;   many  apostatize,  i.  382 
flee  into   Germany,    Switzerland,    and 
England,    i  eir    humane 

treatment  in  Savoy,  i.  333,  384;  a  gen- 
eral roll  of  the    Protestants  made  by 
their   enemies,   ib.  ;     pastoral    remon- 
strances of  Huguenot  ministi  rs,  i 
jealousy  among  Huguenot  leaders,  ib.  ; 
Huguenot  sarcasm  directed  against 
Duke  of  Ma  venue,   i.   396  ;    their 
trust  of  garrisons,  i.  415;  their  prayers 
and  psalm-singing  at  the  battle ol  I 
tras,  i.  431,  seq. ;  they  are  proscril 
the  Edict  of  Union,  July,  1588,  ii.  "•' 
their  condition,  ii.  60;    their  demand 
for  the  Edict  of  January,  ii.  '">] 
are    not    disheartened,    ii.    62 ;     their 
prayers   and    psalm-singing   at    lie  de 
Marans  strike  consternation  into  their 
enemies,   ii.  66,  67  ;    their  organization 
at  the  political  assembly  of  Montaoban, 
ii.  75  ;  they  establish  courts  of  justice, 
ii.  75,  note  ;    thev   make  provision  for 
the  support  of  their  pastors,   and  for 
higher  education,    ii.     76  ;    they    stand 
aloof  from  the  second  states  general  of 


INDEX. 


511 


Blois,  ii.  S4  ;  Henry  III.  declares  his 
continued  hostility  to  them,  ii.  85 ; 
they  breathe  more  freely  after  the 
death  of  the  Duke  of  Guise,  but  ab- 
stain from  unseemly  rejoicing,  ii.  113; 
their  humane  warfare,  ii.  117;  ficti- 
tious stories  of  Huguenot  atrocities,  ii. 
118;  the  Huguenots  cross  the  Loire,  ii. 
144  ;  they  are  greeted  with  complimen- 
tary cries  at  Tours  by  the  Leaguers  of 
Mayenne,  ii.  149 ;  they  attempt  the 
life  of  no  one  of  the  kings  that  perse- 
cuted them,  ii.  160  ;  striking  testimony 
of  Cardinal  d'Ossat,  ii.  160,  161 ;  their 
strength  in  the  south  of  France,  ii. 
167,  168.  Many  are  dissatisfied  with 
the  Declaration  of  St.  Cloud,  and 
some  retire  from  court,  ii.  177  ;  scanty 
justice  done  them  by  the  revocation  of 
the  proscriptive  edicts  of  1585  and 
1588,  ii.  266-269;  they  remonstrate 
against  the  king's  "instruction,"  but 
receive  reassuring  words  from  him,  ii. 
332,  333  ;  the  engagement  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  nobles  that  no  hostile  measure 
be  adopted  pending  the  "instruction" 
of  the  king,  ii.  345 ;  they  are  grad- 
ually excluded  from  one  city  after  an- 
other, ii.  372,  seq.  ;  no  provisions  in 
their  favor  in  the  king's  successive 
edicts,  ii.  374 ;  their  deputies  at  Man- 
tes, ii.  379 ;  unsatisfactory  negotia- 
tions, ii.  380  ;  proposed  ordinance  of 
Mantes,  1593,  ii.  381  ;  provision  made 
for  the  support  of  their  ministers,  by 
a  fund  in  the  royal  treasury,  ii.  382 ; 
they  make  the  "Union  of  Mantes,"  ii. 
383  ;  their  four  years'  struggle  to  ob- 
tain Protestant  rights,  ii.  384 ;  weak- 
ness of  some  Parisian  Huguenots,  ii. 
385  ;  their  political  assembly  of  Sainte 
Foy,  July,  1594,  ii.  386  ;  their  griev- 
ances, ii.  387  ;  their  political  organiza- 
tion, ii.  388;  their  political  assembly 
at  Saumur,  April,  1596,  ii.  391  ;  massa- 
cre at  La  Chataigneraie,  ii.  393 ;  they 
propose  to  revive  the  truce  of  1589,  ii. 
394  ;  their  determined  attitude,  ii.  395, 
seq.  ;  401,  seq. ;  some  leaders  decline  to 
help  the  king,  ii.  408  ;  others  assist  him, 
ii.  410;  Henry  threatens,  ib.  ;  they 
secure  the  Edict  of  Nantes  in  their 
favor,  signed  April  13,  1598,  ii.  414 ;  j 
they  enjoy  comparative  quiet  after  the  \ 
publication  of  the  edict,  ii.  434,  seq. ; 
their  persistence  in  seeking  for  the 
full  exeeution  of  the  edict,  ii.  439  ;  ' 
hopeful  condition  of  their  churches,  j 
ii.  440;  the  view  given  by  Sir  Edwin 
Sandys,  in  his  "Europae  Speculum,"  ii. 
442,  seq.  ;  statistics  of  their  churches 
and  ministers,  ii.  445,  446  ;  at  the  Na- 
tional Synod  of  Gap  (1603)  they  de- 
clare   the    pope    to  be  Antichrist   and 


the  Son  of  Perdition,  ii.  45o  ;  their 
action  at  the  subsequent  Synod  of  La 
Rochelle,  ii.  454 ;  at  the  Synod  of 
Saint  Maixent  (1609)  they  assign  to 
different  provinces  to  study  different 
theological  questions,  ii.  454  ;  they  take 
no  part  in  conspiracies  against  the 
king,  ii.  473  ;  their  zeal  for  popular  ed- 
ucation, ii.  474;  their  "academies," 
or  universities,  ii.  477,  seq.  ;  their  spa- 
cious "temples,"  or  churches,  ii,  479, 
seq.  ;  their  inscriptions  on  their  houses, 
ii.  484,  seq.  ;  their  grief  and  solicitude 
after  the  assassination  of  Henrv  IV., 
ii.  494,  495. 

Huguerye,  Michel  de  la,  a  counsellor  of 
Baron  Dohna.  Hia  character  and  ad- 
vice, i.  444,  seq. 

Humieres,  Charles  de,  renders  Henry  IV. 
good  service,  ii.  171. 

Humieres,  Jacques  d',  institutes  league 
in  Picardy,  i.  103,  149. 


Ibarra,  Diego  de,  Spanish  ambassador,  ii. 

277,  320. 
Infanta,  the  Spanish.     The  ' '  Seize  "  pro- 
pose her  marriage  with  a  French  prince, 

ii.  281. 
Innocent   IX.,  Pope,  his  brief  reign,  ii. 

308. 
Inscriptions,    Huguenot,     on    houses,    ii. 

484,  seq. 
Intolerance    of    Cahors,    Castelnaudary, 

Toulouse,    etc.,   i.   289;    in   the    royal 

army  before  Rouen,  ii.  288. 
Isenburg,  Wolfgang,  Count  of,  i.  402. 
Isle,  river,  i.  429. 
Isle  Bouchard,  1',  ii.  136. 
Isle  en  Jourdain,  1',  i.  259. 
Issoire,  town  of,  i.  94,  158,  167. 
Issy,  ii.  184. 

Italians  unpopular  in  France,  i.  68. 
Ivry,  i.    432;   the  battle  of,  March  14, 

1590,  ii.  196,   seq.;  Henry  IV.' s  white 

plume  at,  ii.  240,  241. 


Jametz,  i.  405,  443. 

January,  edict  of  (January  17,  1562),  i. 
5;  the  "prodigious"  demand  for  its 
re-enactment,  i.  64 ;  also,  i.  168,  etc.  ; 
why  so  strongly  desired  by  the  Hugue- 
nots, ii.  61,  seq. 

Jargeaux,  ii.  154. 

Jarriere,  M.  de  la,  a  Protestant  minister, 
cruelly  put  to  death  by  the  Duke  of 
Joyeuse,  i.  426. 

Jeannin,  President  of  the  Parliament  of 
Dijon,  ii.  328. 


512 


INDEX. 


Jessac,  a  counsellor  of  the  Parliament  of 
Bordeaux,  ii.  436. 

Jesuits,  promoters  of  the  League,  i.  114, 
241,  267,  268,  284 ;  encourage  Jacques 
Clement  to  murder  Henry  III.,  ii. 
155  ;  foil  the  escalade,  ii.  230  ;  they  are 
expelled  from  France  after  the  attempt 
of  Jean  Chastel  to  murder  Henry  IV. , 
ii.  369  ;  they  seek  the  establishment  of 
the  decrees  of  Trent,  ii.  441,  455;  Car- 
dinal Gondy  certifies  their  innocence 
of  the  murder  of  the  king,  ii.  494. 

Joinville,  meeting  of  the  League  at,  i. 
113,  296,445;  ii.  374. 

Joinville,  Prince  of,  son  of  the  Duke  of 
Guise,  ii.  106. 

Jouques,  ii.  297. 

"  Jour  des  farines,"  January  20,  1591,  ii. 
244. 

Joyeuse,  M.  de,  i.  148 ;  ii.  295. 

Joyeuse,  Anne  de,  a  minion  of  Henry 
III.,  i.  226  ;  he  is  married  to  Margaret 
de  Vaudemont,  i.  227 ;  Henry  HI. 
buys  the  admiralty  for  him,  i.  228, 
379 ;  his  cruelty  when  marching  into 
Guyenne,  i.  426,  427  ;  his  delight  at  the 
prospect  of  fighting  Henry  of  Navarre, 
i.  429 ;  commands  the  royal  forces  at 
the  battle  of  Coutras,  October  20,  1587, 
i.  431,  seq.;  he  is  routed  and  killed,  i. 
434;  Henry  III.  gives  his  body  a 
pompous  burial,  i.  437. 

Joyeuse,  Antoine  Scipion  de,  his  defeat 
and  death  at  Villemur,  ii.  295,  296. 

Judges,  pliancy  of,  ii.  463. 

Juliers,  or  Julich,  death  of  the  Duke  of, 
ii.  487. 

Junius,  Dr.,  i.  65. 


La  Chapelle,  i.  275. 

Lagny,  ii.  211,  229,  231,  271. 

Laignes,  i.  446,  note. 

Lamballe,  ii.  274. 

Lancie,  i.  457. 

Landriano,  Marcellino,  sent  to  France  as 
papal  nuncio,  ii.  247. 

Langres,  i.  88. 

Languedoc,  i.  12;  its  deplorable  condi- 
tion according  to  Fourquevaulx,  i.  95, 
96,  148,  162. 

Languet,  Hubert,  i.  114,  115,  244. 

Lansquenets,  German,  at  Ivry,  receive 
no  quarter,  ii.  202. 

Laon,  ii.  130,  374. 

Larcher,  a  counsellor  of  parliament,  put 
to  death  by  the  "  Seize,"  ii.  278. 

Launoy,  Matthieu  de,  i.  275. 

Lautrec,  Marshal,  i.  430. 

Laval,  ii.  295. 

Laval,  son  of  D'Andelot,  i.  261,  378 ;  his 
death,  i.  397. 


Lavardin,  M.  de,  i.  431,  seq.  ;  ii.  488. 

League,  Protestant.  Project  of  a  uni- 
versal league,  i.  243,  seq.;  it  fails  on 
account  of  the  obstinacy  of  the  German 
princes,  i.  203. 

League,  Roman  Catholic.  Henry  III. 
tries  to  suppress  associations  in  Brit- 
tany, i.  102  ;  League  of  Peronne,  i.  103  ; 
origin  of,  i.  104,  seq.;  manifesto  of 
Peronne,  i.  107;  extension  of,  i.  114; 
"Memoire"  of  Nicholas  David,  i.  122. 
seq. ;  Henry  III.  orders  the  institution 
of  associations  throughout  France,  i. 
128 ;  dates  of  articles  of  the  associa- 
tions, i.  148;  opposition  at  Paris,  L 
149 ;  in  Amiens  and  Provins,  ib.  ; 
Henry  III.  thinks  he  has  destroyed  the 
League  by  the  Edict  of  Poitiers,  i.  167 ; 
great  impulse  given  by  the  death  of 
Anjou,  i.  265  ;  its  authorship,  i 
participation  of  Philip  II.  and  the 
Jesuits,  i.  267 ;  makes  capital  of  Na- 
varre's "  incorrigible  obstinacy."1  i.  271  ; 
circulates  wild  reports  of  massacre,  etc., 
i.  272  ;  invents  a  story  of  a  great  Prot- 
estant confederacy  and  invasion,  L 
272,  273  ;  origin  of  the  Parisian  league, 
i.  274 ;  misrepresents  the  actions  of 
Henry  III.,  i.  290;  the  king's  declara- 
tion against  the  League,  November  11, 

1584,  i.  295 ;  conference  of  Joinville, 
December.  1584,  i.  290 ;  the  terms  of 
alliance  with  Philip  II.  i.  297;  new 
edict   against   the    League,    Mai 

1585,  i.  313,  314;  declaration  of  Pe- 
ronne, March  31,  1585,  by  Cardinal 
Bourbon,  etc.,  i.  314,  seq.;  general  suc- 
cess of  the  League,  i.  823  ;  arrogant 
petition  of  Cardinal  Bourbon,  June  9. 
1585,  i.  336;  its  insincerity,  i.  3:  3 
torts  from  Henry  III.  the  Edict  of  Ne- 
mours, July  18,  1585,  i.  ."4.r>  ;  brief  of 
Sixtus  V.  in  its  favor,  i.  356;  confer- 
ence at  Ourcamp,  i.  405  ;  conspiracies 
against  the  life  or  libertv  of  Henry  III. 
i.  419,  420;  articles  of  Nancy,  1" 

11  ;  its  true  views,  according  to  Dr. 
Cavriana,  ii.  28  ;  the  term  of  its  tenure 
of  cities  is  prolonged,  ii.  57  ;  revolu- 
tionary proceedings  at  Paris,  after 
Guise's  murder,  ii.  127  ;  its  growth  by 
the  accession  of  cities  throughout 
France,  ii.  130;  the  League  an  instru- 
ment of  God  in  bringing  Navarre  to 
the  throne,  ii.  145 ;  excesses  of  its 
soldiers  at  Tours,  ii.  150 ;  and  else- 
where, ii.  151 ;  importance  of  Orleans, 
the  only  place  for  crossing  the  Loire 
which  was  in  its  hands,  ii.  192  ;  em- 
barrassment of  the  leaders  at  the  pro- 
posal of  a  peace  conference,  ii.  380; 
they  reluctantly  agree  to  it,  r 
they  oppose  Henry's  "instruction."  ii 
330.     (See  Guise,  Mayenne,  etc.) 


INDEX. 


513 


Lectoure,  i.  258. 

Leicester,  i.  24.'!. 

Lenoncourt,  i.  «>56. 

Lescars,  i.  258. 

Lesdiguieres  succeeds  Montbrun  as  Hu- 
guenot leader  in  Dauphiny,  i.  69,  172, 
~09 ;  his  successes,  i.  420  ;  ii.  75  ;  ii. 
189;  ii.  233;  he  asks  and  obtains  the 
governorship  of  Grenoble,  ii.  242,  243  ; 
his  exploits  in  Provence,  ii.  275  ;  his 
victory  at  Pontcharra,  September  19, 
1591,  ii.  276;  other  successes,  ii.  297, 
seq. 

Lestoile,  the  author  of  Henry  of  Navarre's 
challenge  to  Sixtus  V.,  i.  369 ;  on  the 
instrumentality  of  the  League  in  bring- 
ing Henry  of  Navarre  to  the  throne,  ii. 
145 ;  ii.  217. 

Leti,  Gregorio,  ii.  445. 

Liancoart,  M.,  ii.  488. 

Liberty  of  conscience,  declared  by  Pope 
Clement  VIII.  to  be  the  worst  thing  in 
the  world,  ii.  431. 

Licques,  de,  i.  383. 

Limoges,  i.  259. 

L.sieux,  ii.  192. 

Livron,  besieged,  i.  18,  35,  42,  43 ;  its 
fortifications  destroyed,  i.  224. 

Loire,  river.  Almost  all  the  passages 
across  in  the  hands  of  the  king,  ii.  192. 

Lome'nie,  M.,  secretary  of  Henry  IV.,  ii. 
352,  378,  462. 

London,  the  Huguenot  refugees  at,  i.  383. 

Longueville,  M.  de,  i.  423  ;  ii.  153,  154, 
175,  181,  232. 

Loriol,  i.  224. 

Lorraine,  Cardinal  Charles  of,  counsels 
war  against  the  Huguenots,  i.  28,  29 ; 
death  of,  i.  39 ;  his  character,  i.  40  ;  he 
claims  to  have  caused  the  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  i.  41  ;  his  re- 
sponsibility, i.  41,  42  ;  ii.  436. 

Lorraine,  Duchy  of,  spared  by  the  Army 
of  the  Reiters,  i.  442,  seq. 

Lorraine,  Duke  of.  He  is  threatened  by 
the  German  princes,  i.  331. 

Louchart  or  Louchard,  i.  275  ;  ii.  282. 

Loudun,  ii.  136,  393. 

Louise  de  Vaudemont  marries  Henry  III. , 
i.  45,  etc.;  she  protests  against  the 
Edict  of  Folembray,  and  the  exculpa- 
tion of  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  ii.  372. 

Loyola,  Ignatius.  His  canonization  urged 
upon  the  pope  by  Henry  IV.,  ii.  474. 

Lude,  Le,  i.  378. 

Lunel,  i.  162,  seq.;  190,  203,  260. 

Lune'ville,  i.  446,  note. 

Luserne,  ii.  298. 

Lusignan,  castle  of,  captured,  i.  43,  259 ; 
noble  family  of,  i.  44. 

Luxembourg,  Duke  of.     See  Piney. 

Lyons,  i.  223,  323,  457  ;  ii.  130,  369,  374, 
387. 

Lyons,  Espinac,  Pierre  d',  Archbishop  of, 

Vol.  II.— 33 


presides  over  clergy  at  States  General 
of  Blois,  i.  132  ;  his  intolerant  address, 
i.  140  ;  ii.  90  ;  he  opposes  Guise's  with- 
drawal from  Blois,  ii.  97 ;  he  is  ar- 
rested, ii.  103,  153  ;  is  sent  by  the  city 
of  Paris  to  confer  with  Henry  IV.  re- 
specting a  peace,  ii.  217,  seq.;  ii.  324; 
takes  part  in  the  conference  of  Sures- 
nes,  ii.  328,  seq. 


UI. 


Macon,  i.  457, 

Madron,  ii.  131. 

Magdeburg,  administrator  of,  i.  253. 

Magic,  resort  to,  ii.  127. 

Magical  effect  ascribed  to  Huguenot  pray- 
ers and  psalms,  ii.  60,  67. 

Maillezais,  i.  426. 

Mailly  la  Ville,  i.  446,  note. 

Maistre,  Le,  President,  ii  .126  ;  he  opposes 
the  reception  of  the  decrees  of  the 
Council  of  Trent,  ii,  324,  325  ;  he  justi- 
fies his. course  to  the  Duke  of  Mayenne, 
ii.  326. 

Malicorne,  Jean  de  Chourses,  Sieur  de,  ii. 
1 16. 

"  Manant,  Le,  paye  tout,"  i.  74. 

Mandelot,  governor  of  Lyons,  i.  323,  457. 

Manou,  M.  de,  ii.  169. 
J  Mans,  ii.  130.  374. 

Mans,  Bishop  of,  ii.  349. 
i  Mansfelt,  Count  Charles  of,  ii.  320. 

Mantes,  declaration  of,  July,  1591,  ii. 
262  ;  the  Huguenot  deputies  at,  ii.  379 ; 
proposed  ordinance  of,  1593,  ii.  381  ; 
k'  Union  of  Mantes,"  1593,  ii.  383. 

Manzoni,  Alessandro,  his  account  of  the 
""colonna  infame"  of  Milan,  i.  171. 

Marans,  the  lie  de,  ii.  63 ;  described  by 
Henry  of  Navarre,  ii.  64  ;  it  is  captured 
by  him,  ii.  65,  seq. 
!  Maravat,  M.,  ii.  448. 

1  Margaret  of  Valois,  i.  100,  186,  203,  205. 
She  is  affronted  by  her  brother,  Henry 
III.,  i.  238,  seq.;  she  becomes  an  active 
ally  of  the  League,  i.  360  ;  ii.  112  ;  ii.  334  ; 
her  marriage  with  Henry  IV.  declared 
null  and  void  by  the  pope,  ii.  456. 
i  Marignane,  ii.  270. 

Marie,  County  of,  i.  259. 

Marmande,  i.  158 ;  ii.  374. 

"Marreaux,"  or  ,l  mereaux,"  i.  220. 

Marsan,  Viscounty  of,  i.  258. 

Marseilles,  i.  261. 

Marsillargues,  i.  162,  260. 

Martin,  St.,  of  Tours,  ii.  370. 

Martin,  a  commissioner  at  the  confer- 
ence of  Fontainebleau,  ii.  462. 

Martinengo,  the  regiment  of.  Its  atroci- 
ties in  America  and  elsewhere,  ii.  472. 

Mas  d'Azil,  i.  258. 

Mas  de  Verdun,  i.  94,  260. 


514 


INDEX. 


Mascarene,  i.  18. 

Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day  (Au- 
gust 24,  1572),  i.  6,40,  56,  57;  punish- 
ment of  its  authors  demanded,  i.  59 ; 
disavowed  by  Henry  III. ,  i.  60,  93  ; 
commemorated  in  1583,  i.  225. 

Matignon,  Jacques  Goyon  de,  Marshal,  i. 
209,  423,  428  ;  his  loyalty,  ii.  133,  181, 
436,  437. 

Matthieu,  Claude,  a  courier  of  the  League, 
i.  300  ;  ii.  278. 

Maubert,  Place,  ii.  41. 

Maugiron,  Laurent  de,  i.  172. 

Maulevrier,  Count,  ii.  8. 

Maurevel,  attempted  murderer  of  Admiral 
Coligny,  ii.  464. 

Maurier,  M.  du.  His  embassy  to  deceive 
Queen  Elizabeth,  ii.  311-314. 

Maximilian  II.,  Emperor  of  Germany, 
gives  good  advice  to  Henry  III. ,  i.  26  ; 
his  example  of  tolerance,  i.  56. 

Mayenne,  Charles,  Duke  of,  brother  of 
Guise,  i.  79,  101,  158;  is  successful  in 
Dauphiny,  i.  209;  disregards  the  king's 
edict,  i.  224  ;  sells  the  admiralty  to  Joy- 
euse,  i.  228;  i.  236,  284,  292,  297;  se- 
cures two  cities  by  the  edict  of  Ne- 
mours, i.  346 ;  i.  378 ;  he  purposely 
wages  an  indecisive  warfare,  i.  391 ,  31)2, 
394,  seq. ;  annoys  Guise  by  his  incon- 
siderateness,  i.  420 ;  his  single  combat 
with  Baron  Dohna  at  Vimory,  i.  449; 
is  said  to  have  warned  the  king  respect- 
ing Guise's  plot,  ii.  96,  97  ;  contrasted 
with  his  brother,  ii.  108;  he  assumes 
supreme  control  of  the  League  as 
"Lieutenant-General  of  the  Royal  Es- 
tate," ii.  130;  he  attacks  the  suburbs 
of  Tours,  ii.  149;  he  proclaims  Cardinal 
Bourbon  king,  as  Charles  X.,  ii.  180, 
and  styles  himself  Lieutenant-General, 
ib. ;  he  is  repulsed  at  Arques,  ii.  182, 
seq. ;  he  comes  to  the  relief  of  Paris,  ii. 
186;  his  quarrel  with  the  "Seize,"  ii. 
193  ;  he  declines  to  follow  Villeroy's 
good  advice,  ii.  194;  fights  against 
Henry  IV.  at  Ivry,  ii.  196,  seq.;  his 
cowardice,  ii.  203  ;  he  implores  the  help 
of  Philip  II.  and  the  pope,  ii.  209  ;  he 
avenges  the  murder  of  President  Bris- 
son,  and  puts  an  end  to  the  power  of 
the  "Seize,"  ii.  281,  282;  his  jealousy 
of  the  Duke  of  Parma,  ii.  288  ;  his 
bad  generalship,  ii.  289 ;  he  demands, 
through  Villeroy,  a  virtual  dismember- 
ment of  Prance,  ii.  302  ;  he  attempts  to 
seduce  the  loyal  Roman  Catholic  lead- 
ers, ii.  315;  he  quarrels  with  Feria  and 
Inigo  de  Mendoza,  ii.  320,  3:21  ;  his 
terms  with  Spain,  ii.  321  ;  he  secures 
extravagant  concessions  from  Henry 
IV.,  in  the  Edict  of  Folembray,  ii.  372. 

Mayneville,  Francois  de,  the  "  courier  of 
the  League,  "i.  292,  296,  421  ;  ii.  33,34,44. 


Meausse,  La,  at  conference  of  Nerac,  i. 
188. 

Meaux,  i.  201 ;  ii.  33,  309,  373. 

Mecklenburg,  Duke  of,  i.  253. 

Medici,  Alexander  de',  Cardinal  of  Fer- 
rara,  papal  legate,  ii.  421. 

Medici,  Maria  de'.  Her  marriage  with 
Henry  IV.,  ii.  456;  she  is  crowned  and 
appointed  regent  during  the  king's 
prospective  absence,  ii.  4^8;  ii.  493. 

Melun,  ii.  130,  211. 

Melusine,  the  fairy,  i.  44 ;  the  tower  of, 
destroyed,  i.  45. 

Mende,  i.  198. 

Mendoza,  Inigo  de,  ii.  320. 

Mendoza,  Bernardino  de.  His  plots  while 
he  was  Spanish  ambassador  at  London, 
i.  285  ;  his  chaiacter,  i.  286  ;  his  magnifi- 
cence when  ambassador  to  France,  i. 
287 ;  his  reported  insolence  to  Henry 
III.,  i.  307;  he  is  satisfied  with  Guise's 
zeal,  ii.  12;  his  anxiety,  ii.  34;  his 
satisfaction  at  the  publication  of  the 
Edict  of  Union,  ii.  59;  remonstrai- a 
with  Guise  on  his  imprudence,  i 
his  house  at  Paris  becomes  the  head- 
quarters of  the  League,  ii.  l~b;  ii.  214, 
216. 

Mercoeur,  Philip  Emmanuel  of  Lorraine, 
Duke  of,  i.  298,  320.  454 ;  ii.   68 ;  his 
treachery  to  Henrv  III.,  ii.  133  : 
274,  295,303,374,391,  4".-,. 

MerindoL  ii.  298. 

Meru,  a  younger  Montmorency,  i.  15. 

Mesnaigier,  i.  142. 

Metz,  i.  301,  3'23. 

Meulan,  ii.  33,  184,  195. 

Mezieres.  i.  80,  32. 

"Mignons,"  or  minions,  of  Henrv  111.,  i. 
179,  IJSii.  226,  Beq. 

Milan,  calumnies  at  time  of  the  | 
lence  of  the  plague  at,  i.  171. 

Milhau,  political  assembly  at.  i.  21  ;  city 
of,  i.  259;  it>  dispute  with  Francois 
de  Chiitillon,  i.  415.  seq. 

"  Miuistrcs  conrtisana,"  *'"'■  ■*■  • 

Ministers.  Protestant,  support  of.  ii.  419. 

Miossens,  i.  259. 

Mirabeau,  Marquis,  ii.  4*8. 

Miraumont.  Madeleine  de,  her  valor,  i.  7ti. 

Mirebeau,  ii.  136. 

Mocenigo,  Doge  of  Venice,  eoun- 
eration,  i .  26. 

Mocenigo,  Venetian  ambassador,   ii,   191. 

Bfoissard,  i.  201. 
,  Monclar,  Viscount  of,  L 

Mondidier.  ii.  369. 

Money,  French  and  English,  compared  in 
value,  ii.  184,  note. 

Monglas,  Louis  de  Harlav,  Sieur  de,  i. 
446. 

"Monsieur,  Peace  of,"  i.  98,  eta 

Montaign,  i.  205  ;  ii.  <'>7. 
I  Montal,  M.  de,  i.  77. 


INDEX. 


515 


Montandre,  Baron  of,  i.  261. 

Montargis,  i.  449. 

Montauban,  political  assembly  at,  i.  197 ; 
another  in  1581,  i.  215  ;  i.  218  ;  Prot- 
estant court  at,  abolished  November  10, 
1590,  li.  234;  synod  of,  1594,  ii.  384; 
Protestant  university  at,  ii.  477. 

Montault,  M.,  ii.  191. 

Montbazon,  Duke  of,  ii.  175,  488. 

Montbeliard,  conference  of,  March,  158G, 
i.  400;  Frederick,  Count  of,  i.  402; 
cruelly  ravaged,  i.  456 ;  Protestant 
university  at,  ii.  478. 

Montbrun,  a  brave  Huguenot  leader  in 
Dauphiny  ;  his  reply  to  Henry  III.,  i. 
36 ;  his  capture,  i.  67  ;  Catharine  and 
the  king  resolved  that  he  shall  die,  i.  68  ; 
his  constant  and  Christian  death,  i.  69. 

Montcornet,  ii.  374. 

Mont  de  Marsan  surprised,  i.  209 ;  i.  258. 

Monte'limart,  i.  421. 

Montereau,  ii.  211. 

Montgomery,  Gabriel,  Count  of,  taken 
and  executed,  i.  16 ;  his  son,  i.  262. 

Montguion,  Baron  of,  i.  201. 

Montholon,  appointed  Keeper  of  the  Seals, 
ii.  84  ;  his  speech  at  the  States  General 
of  Blois,  ii.  88. 

Montigny,  M.  de,  i.  431,  seq. 

Montlieu,  i.  428. 

Montlieu,  Baron  of,  i.  261. 

Montmarin,  i.  391. 

Montmartre,  ii.  323. 

Montmorency,  Annede,  Constable,  i.  148, 
364,  365,  443,  note. 

Montmorency,  Francois  de,  Marshal, 
eldest  son  of  the  constable,  a  prisoner, 
i.  16  ;  he  is  liberated,  i.  72. 

Montmorency,  Henri  de.    See  Damville. 

Montpellier,  l.  17,  36,  62,  162,  167,  203, 
260 ;  the  Huguenots  establish  a  court 
"  mi-partie  "  at,  ii.  75;  Protestant  uni- 
versity at,  ii.  477. 

Montpensier,  Francois,  Duke  of  (see 
Dauphin,  Prince).  He  begs  Henry  of 
Navarre  to  be  converted,  i.  358  ;  i.  423  ; 
ii.  154,  175,  198,  232,  284. 

Montpensier,  Louis,  Duke  of,  i.  18;  his 
daughter  marries  William  of  Orange, 
ib. ;  takes  Fontenay  and  Lusignan,  i. 
43,  etc.  ;  i.  51 ;  i.  102  ;  at  Blois,  i.  127, 
140,  154 ;  i.  210. 

Montpensier,  Madame  de,  sister  of  Henry 
of  Guise.  Her  threats  respecting  Henry 
III. ,  ii.  6 ;  her  plots,  ii.  29 ;  she  encour- 
ages Jacques  Clement  to  murder  Henry 
III,  ii.  155;  ii.  183;  "Madame  Mont- 
pensier's  bread,"  ii.  217. 

Montrouge,  ii.  184. 

Mont  Saint  Michel,  i.  66. 

Montsegur.  i.  211,  260. 

Montsoreau,  i.  428. 

Moreo,  Juan,  Commander,  i.  296 ;  ii.  32. 

Morlas,  M.  de,  ii  356. 


Morosini,  Cardinal,  the  papal  legate,  pru- 
dently remains  at  court,  ii.  134. 

Morvan,  district  of,  i.  440. 

Morvilliers,  Jean  de,  Bishop  of  Orleans, 
i.  51,  55,  131  ;  opposes  war  against  the 
Huguenots,  i.  137,  154. 

Mothe  Saint  Heray,  La,  i.  427,  435. 

Motley,  J .  Lothrop,  i.  329,  note. 

Moulin,  Pierre  du,  ii.  9,  note. 

Mure,  i.  209. 

Muy,  ii.  LJ97. 


W. 


11  Naked  processions,"  ii.  126. 

Nancy,  the  articles  of,  ii.  11. 

Nantes,  i.  205 ;  ii.  68,  374,  414. 

Nantes,  Bishop  of,  ii.  349. 

Nantes,  Edict  of,  i.  185  ;  negotiations  pre- 
ceding, ii.  405,  seq.  ;  signed  April  13, 
1598,  ii.  414  ;  its  provisions,  ii.  415, 
seq. ;  it  secures  religious  liberty,  ii.  410  ; 
provisions  for  religious  worship,  ii.  417  ; 
for  education  and  charity,  ib. ;  for  ceme- 
teries, civil  equality,  etc.,  ii.  418,  419; 
an  epoch  in  modern  civilization,  ii.  420  : 
not  extorted  by  force,  ii.  422 ;  opposed 
by  clergy  and  university,  ii.  423;  reg- 
istered by  the  parliament  of  Paris  Feb- 
ruary 25,  1599,  ii.  428;  the  edict  wel- 
comed by  all  reasonable  men,  ii.  429  ; 
a  fundamental  law  of  the  kingdom,  ib. ; 
the  statement  of  Jean  Claude,  ii.  430  ; 
Pope  Clement  VIII.  declares  the  edict 
to  be  the  most  accursed  that  could  be 
imagined,  ii.  431 ;  comparative  quiet  of 
the  Huguenots  after  its  publication,  ii. 
434  ;  dilatoriness  of  the  parliaments  in 
registering  it,  ii.  435,  seq. 

Nanteuil,  i.  183. 

Narbonne,  i.  95,  96. 

Navarre,  Henry  of,  afterward  Henry  IV., 
born  December  14,  1553,  i.  7;  guarded 
as  a  prisoner,  i.  8 ;  escapes  from  the 
court  February,  1576,  i.  85,  seq.  ;  re- 
sumes the  profession  of  Protestantism, 
i.  87 ;  his  demands,  i.  90  ;  i.  108  ;  pro- 
tests against  the  states  general,  i.  116; 
his  answer  to  the  envoys  of  the  states 
general,  i.  144 ;  his  significant  assurance, 
i.  145  ;  he  attempts  to  mediate  between 
Damville  and  the  Huguenots,  i.  164  ;  he 
swears  to  restore  the  cities  of  refuge, 
i.  166 ;  at  the  conference  of  Ne'rac, 
i.  186,  seq. ;  he  surprises  Fleurance, 
i.  188,  189  ;  sends  pieces  of  broken  coins 
to  his  chief  nobles,  i.  198 ;  justifies  his 
taking  up  arms  (seventh  civil  war,  1580), 
i.  200,  seq. ;  surprises  Cahors,  i.  205,  seq. ; 
justifies  himself  for  hastily  concluding 
the  peace  of  Fleix,  i.  213  ;  his  court  of 
Nerac,  i.  214 ;  elected  "  Protector  of 
the  Reformed  Churches  of  France," 
i.  215  ;  his  willingness  to  be  instructed, 


516 


INDEX. 


ib.  ;  his  council,  ib.  ;  negotiates  with  | 
Philip  II. ,  i.  235  ;  discloses  Spanish  de-  j 
signs,  ib.  ;  his  advances  discouraged  by 
Henry  III.,  i.  237;  is  affronted  by  the  J 
king,  i.  238,  seq.  ;  his  plan  for  a  uni-  ] 
versal  league  among  Protestants,  i.  243, 
seq. ;  sends  Segur  to  the  Protestant  i 
Powers,  i.  210;  his  "•justification," 
i.  25U,  251  ;  his  answer  to  the  Lutheran 
princes,  i.  255  ;  his  possessions  and  re- 
sources, i.  257-262  ;  on  becoming  heir 
presumptive,  receives  good  advice  from 
Duplessis  Mornay,  i.  '^70  ;  is  entreated 
to  renounce  Protestantism,  i.  271  ;  his 
reply  to  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  ib.  ; 
is  reported  to  be  incorrigibly  obstinate, 
i.  271  ;  answers  the  calumnies  of  the 
League,  i.  274,  note ;  his  offers  of  help 
declined  by  Henry  III.,  i.  326,  '327  ;  his 
correspondence,  ib.  ;  his  continued  of- 
fers, i.  328 ;  he  consults  the  great  Hu- 
guenot chiefs,  i.  332,  seq.  ;  he  approves 
the  counsel  of  Agrippa  d'Aubigne',  i. 
335  ;  his  manifesto,  Bergerac,  J  une  10, 
1585,  i.  337  ;  he  challenges  Guise,  i.  340 ; 
his  willingness  to  be  instructed  excites 
suspicion,  i.  342 ;  his  letter  to  Henry 
III.,  July  10,  1585,  i.  343;  his  remark 
on  learning  of  the  Edict  of  Nemours, 
i.  349 ;  joins  Montmorency  and  Conde 
in  a  declaration  against  the  League, 
i.  350,  seq.  ;  to  the  king's  envoys  he 
professes  his  readiness  to  submit  to  a 
council  of  the  Church,  i.  357;  his  an- 
swer to  the  Duke  of  Montpensier,  i.  358  ; 
he  is  excommunicated  by  Pope  ftixtus 
V.,  i.  366;  he  challenges  Six t us  in  turn 
to  appear  before  a  general  council,  i.  368  ; 
he  retaliates,  i.  374  ;  jealousy  between 
Navarre  and  Conde,  i.  386  ;  his  growing 
selfishness,  i.  387 ;  his  letters  to  the 
city  of  Paris  and  the  three  orders  of  the 
kingdom,  i.  388,  seq.  ;  his  conference 
with  Catharine  de'  Medici  at  Saint  Bi  is, 
i.  407,  seq.  ;  his  words  to  the  Duke  of 
Nevers,  i.  411  ;  his  indignant  speech  to 
Catharine,  i.  412  ;  the  possibility  of  his 
conversion,  i.  413;  its  futility  in  1585, 
i.  414;  his  successes  in  Poitou,  i.  42«»; 
commands  in  the  battle  of  Coutras, 
October  20,  1587,  i.  430,  seq.  ;  his  brav- 
ery, i.  434 ;  loses  the  fruits  of  victory, 
i.  437;  his  attempted  justification,  i. 
438,  seq. ;  the  importance  of  his  con- 
version in  the  eyes  of  Henry  of  Valois, 
ii.  14,  seq.  ;  his  depression  after  the 
assassination  of  the  Prince  of  Conde, 
ii.  24;  a  plot  to  murder  is  discovered, 
ii.  25  ;  urges  the  Countess  of  Grammont 
to  become  a  Protestant,  ib.,  note;  he 
rejects  new  propositions  of  Henry  III. , 
that  he  should  change  his  religion,  ii.  26  ; 
his  satisfaction  on  hearing  of  the  Bar- 
ricades,  ii.  50 ;    his  description  of  the 


lie  de  Marans,  ii.  64,  which  he  succeed* 
in  taking,   ii.   65,   seq.  ;  his  other  suc- 
cesses in  Poitou,  ii.  67  ;  his  add] 
the  political  assembly  of  La  Rochelle, 
ii.  70,  seq.  ;  his  inconsistencies.   .. 
remonstrances  of  his  Huguenot  follow- 
ers, ii.  73 ;  he  is  intolerant  of  political 
opposition,    ii.   74  ;    his  petition  to  the 
states  of  Blois  for  tw  instruction/' ib.  ; 
his  council  as  "  protector  of  the  church- 
es," ii.  75  ;  his  relief  when  the  political 
assembly  of  La  Rochelle  adjourns,  ii. 
77;  the  clergy  demand  that  he  be  de- 
clared incapable  of   succeeding  to  the 
crown,  ii.  92  ;  his  delight  at  the  death 
of    Catharine    de1  Medici,   ii.    112;    he 
captures    Niort,    ii.    116,  US;    he   falls 
dangerously  ill,  ii.  12J;  general  anxiety 
of  the  Huguenots,  ii.  121  ;  his  religious 
professions,    ib.  ;    he   advances   to   the 
Loire,   and  gams    many  cities,  ii.  136; 
he  issues,  from  Chatellerault,  March  4, 
1 589,  an  appeal  to  ti:e  three  orders,  ii. 
137,  seq.;  he  declares  himself  o] 
conviction,  ii.  138,  and  takes  all  patriots 
under  his  protection,  ii.  14";  }.■ 
into  a  truce  with  Henry  III.,  April  24, 
1580,  ii.  143,  seq  ;  he  crosses  the  Loire, 
ii.    144;    the  League  an  instrune 
God  in  bringing  him  to  the  thn  D 
145;    his  meeting  with   Henry   III.  a' 
Plessis  les  Tours,   ii.    146;   he   rei 
assistance  to  the  king  at  Tours,  ii.  140  ; 
takes  his  position  at  Meudon,  ii.  I 

His  accession  to  the  throm 
as  Henry  IV..  August  2,  L589,   ii 
difficulties  of  his  position  as  a  Hugue- 
not king,  ib.  ;  his  relations  to  the  pope, 

ii.  lf.7;    hostile  attitude  of  many  I 
adherents  of  Henry  III.,   ii.  168, 
Guitry,  Agrippa  d'Aubigne',  and  Sancy 
render  him  good  service,  ii.  169  ;  absurd 
proposal  that  he  and  Cardinal  Bourbon 
should  reign  jointly,  ii.  170;  selfishness 
and  intrigues  of  the  courtiers,  ib.  :  his 
purchase  of  loyalty,  ii.172;  he  n 
instant   abjuration,    ii.    17:i;     his 
laration   of  St.   Cloud,   August  4,  1589, 
taking  the    Roman    Catholic    religion 
under  his  protection,  etc.,  ii.  174.  - 
he  gives  ample  guarantees,   ii.  175;   he 
vindicates  himself  in  answer  to  H 
not  complaints,  ii.  178;  his  strata  for 
money  and  ammunition,  ii.  181  ;  he  es- 
corts the  remains  of  Henry  III.  to  Com- 
piegne,  ib.;  he  marches  to  Normandy,  ii. 
182;   conflicts   at  Arques,   September- 
October,    1589,  ii.  182,  seq.  ;  he  returns 
and  threatens  the  faubourgs  of  Paris,  ii. 
184 ;    he  protects  the  Roman  Catholic 
churches,  ii.  186;  he  receives  a  renewal 
of  the  Swiss  league,  and  is  recognised 
by  Venice,  ii.  191  ;  his  dominion  at  the 
beginning   of  his  reign,    ii.    192;    he  is 


INDEX. 


517 


supported  by  the  high  ecclesiastics,  ii. 
193  ;  the  convocation  of  French  bishops 
at  Tours,  to  consult  as  to  his  conversion, 
forbidden  by  Cardinal  Cajetan,  ii.  194  ; 
his  victory  over  the  Duke  of  Mayenne 
at  Ivry,  March  14,  1590.  ii.  196,  seq.  ; 
his  prayers  before  the  battle,  ii.  1 98 ; 
disposition  of  his  troops,  ib.  ;  Ins  brav- 
ery and  clemency,  ii.  201,  203;  his  ac- 
count of  the  battle,  ii.  200  ;  lie  fails  to 
push  his  success,  ii.  207  ;  he  tardily  lays 
siege  to  Paris,  ii.  211  ;  his  conference 
with  Cardinal  Gondy  and  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Lyons,  at  Saint  Antoine  des 
Champs,  ii.  217,  seq.  ;  his  tenderheart- 
edness toward  the  starving  poor,  ii.  2~3  ; 
he  is  blamed  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  ii. 
224 ;  his  perplexity  when  the  Duke  of 
Parma  comes  to  the  relief  of  Paris,  ii. 
225,  seq.  ;  his  superficial  and  evanescent 
devotion,  ii.  227 ;  he  withdraws  from 
Paris,  but  fails  to  force  Parma  to  fight, 
ii.  227,  seq.  ;  makes  an  unsuccessful 
escalade,  ii.  230  ;  his  treacherous  ser- 
vants, ii.  231 ;  he  gives  a  furlough  to  his 
troops,  ii.  232 ;  follows  Parma  in  his 
retreat,  ii.  233 ;  he  abolishes  the  three 
Protestant  courts  at  Saint  Jean  d'An- 
gely.  Bergerac,  and  Montauban,  No- 
vember 10, 1590,  ii.  234;  but  is  lavish  of 
kind  assurances  to  the  Protestants,  ib. ; 
he  signs  an  edict  for  their  relief,  which 
he  subsequently  recalls,  ii.  235  ;  his  dif- 
ficult position,  ii.  242,  seq.  ;  he  fails  to 
take  Paris  on  the  "Jour  des  farines," 
ii.  244,  seq.  ;  he  is  called  upon  to  abjure, 
ii.  251 ;  the  "remonstrance  of  Angers," 
ib.  ;  the  remonstrance  is  suppressed, 
ii.  255  ;  Henry  ridicules  young  Cardinal 
Bourbon's  pretensions,  ii.  256 ;  he  is 
dissuaded  by  Duplessis  Mornay  from 
writing  to  Pope  Gregory  XIV. ,  ii.  259  ; 
he  announces  his  intention  of  doing 
justice  to  the  Protestants,  and  issues 
the  declaration  of  Mantes,  July,  1591, 
ii.  202,  seq.  ;  his  forcible  address,  ii. 
262-265 ;  he  abrogates  the  prescriptive 
edicts  of  July,  1585,  and  1588,  and  re-es- 
tablishes the  edict  of  1577,  ii.  206 ;  he 
figures  much  as  a  stranger  to  the  Prot- 
estants, ii.  267  ;  he  is  begged  by  the  as- 
sembly of  clergy  at  Chartres  to  become  a 
Roman  Catholic,  September,  1591,  ii. 
269,  282,  note ;  he  lays  siege  to  Rouen, 
ii.  283  ;  goes  out  to  meet  Parma,  and  is 
wounded  at  Aumale,  ii.  286;  the  plan 
of  Duplessis  Mornay  for  his  instruction, 
ii.  304,  seq.  ;  he  tries  to  make  a  friend 
of  Pope  Clement  VIII.,  ii.  308;  he 
sends  Cardinal  Gondy  and  Marquis 
Pisany  to  Italy,  ii.  309 ;  his  singular 
letter  to  the  pope,  ii.  310  ;  he  attempts 
to  deceive  Queen  Elizabeth  respecting 
his   contemplated    "  instruction  "   and 


abjuration,  ii.  311-313;  he  agrees  to  the 
peace  conference,  ii.  317 ;  his  reply  to 
Mayenne's  manifesto,  ii.  318;  his  view 
of  a  heartless  conversion,  ii.  319 ;  he 
intimates  to  Francois  d'O  his  decision 
to  become  a  Roman  Catholic,  ii.  327; 
he  invites  the  Roman  Catholic  bishops 
to  Mantes  to  "instruct"  him,  ii.  329; 
he  invites  the  chief  nobles,  ii.  330; 
apocryphal  remark  ascribed  to  him,  ii. 
3-Jl ;  his  reassuring  replies  to  Huguenot 
remonstrances,  ii.  332,  333  ;  his  patience 
under  the  reproof  of  his  Huguenot  min- 
isters, ii.  333;  their  remonstrances  at 
the  time  of  his  abjuration,  ii.  334,  seq.  ; 
his  attitude  at  the  time  of  his  abjura- 
tion, ii.  342  ;  his  religious  views,  ii.  343, 
seq.  ;  he  authorizes  his  Roman  Catholic 
noblemen  to  engage  that  no  measures 
hostile  to  the  Huguenots  should  be 
adopted,  pending  the  "  instruction,"  ii. 
345 ;  he  ineffectually  entreats  Duples- 
sis Mornay  to  come  to  him,  ii.  346 ;  his 
"instruction."  Saint  Denis,  July  23, 
1593,  ii.  349-352;  a  forged  confession  of 
his  faith,  in  Lomenie's  handwriting, 
sent  to  Rome,  ii.  352  ;  his  abjuration, 
Saint  Denis,  July  25,  1593,  ii.  353-355  ; 
popular  comments  upon  this  act,  ii.  355  ; 
Queen  Elizabeth's  letter  on  this  occa- 
sion, ii.  356,  357 ;  he  claims  still  to  be 
a  Huguenot,  ii.  360 ;  he  asks  for  the 
prayers  of  Protestant  ministers,  ii.  361 ; 
his  occasional  anxiety  of  mind,  ib.  ; 
virulence  of  the  clergy,  ii.  362 ;  he  is 
absolved  by  Pope  Clement  VIII. ,  Sep- 
tember 17,  1595,  ii.  367 ;  conspiracies 
against  his  life,  ii.  367,  seq.  ;  his  suc- 
cesses, ii.  309 ;  he  is  anointed  king  at 
Chartres,  February  27,  1594,  ib.  ;  his 
entry  into  Paris,  March  22,  1594,  ii. 
370  ;  he  makes  lavish  concessions  to  the 
League,  but  grants  no  favors  to  the 
Huguenots  in  his  "edicts  of  reunion," 
ii.  374  ;  will  he  become  a  persecutor  ?  ii. 
376;  he  tries  to  justify  his  abjuration, 
ii.  378  ;  his  kind  assurances  to  the  Hu- 
guenot deputies  at  Mantes,  ii.  379 ; 
his  coronation  oath,  ii.  382 ;  he  de- 
clares war  against  Spain,  January  17, 
1595,  ii.  391  ;  he  begs  the  Protestant 
political  assembly  of  Loudun  to  remain 
in  session,  ii.  398  ;  he  recaptures  Amiens, 
September,  1597,  ii.  412;  he  appoints 
a  commission,  February,  1598,  which 
frames  the  plan  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 
ib.  ;  he  publishes  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 
April  13,  1598,  ii.  414 ;  he  concludes 
with  Spam  the  peace  of  Vervins,  May, 
1598,  ii.  421 ;  his  address  to  the  clergy 
respecting  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  ii.  424  ; 
he  makes  some  modifications,  ii.  425  ; 
he  speaks  determinedly  to  the  parlia- 
ment of  Paris,  ii.  426,  seq.  ;  his  address 


518 


INDEX. 


to  the  deputies  of  the  parliament  of 
Bordeaux,  ii.  430,  437  ;  his  sharp  words 
to  the  deputies  of  the  parliament  of 
Toulouse,  ii.  438;  his  final  address  to 
the  deputies  from  the  parliament  of 
Rouen,  ii.  439  ;  his  displeasure  at  the 
action  of  the  National  Synod  of  Gap, 
which  declares  the  pope  to  be  Anti- 
christ, ii.  453,  454 ;  his  marriage  with 
Margaret  of  Valois  annulled,  and  prep- 
arations made  for  his  marriage  with 
Marie  de'  Medici,  ii.  450;  his  annoy- 
ance with  Duplessis  Mornay,  because  of 
his  book  on  the  Eucharist,  ii.  457 ;  his 
sharp  words,  ii.  458  ;  he  appoints  a  con- 
troversy between  Duplessis  Mornay  and 
Du  Perron,  at  Fontaineblean,  ii.  45(J ; 
his  injustice  exposed,  ii.  460  ;  his  ela- 
tion at  his  success,  ii.  40(3  ;  Iris  disgrace- 
ful letter  to  the  Duke  of  Epernon,  ib.  ; 
his  kindness  to  the  Genevese,  in  whose 
favor  he  reduces  the  Fort  SainteCathe'- 
rine,  ii.  409;  he  urges  the  pope  to  canon- 
ize Ignatius  Loyola  and  Francis  Xavier, 
ii.  474  ;  he  grants  the  Parisian  Protes- 
tants a  place  of  worship,  first  at  Ablon, 
afterward  at  Charenton,  ii.  481,  482  ;  his 
jest  as  to  the  distance  of  the  latter  from 
Paris,  ii.  483  ;  he  contemplates  war  with 
the  German  Empire,  ii.  487,  seq.  ;  he 
is  assassinated  by  Francois  Ravaillac, 
May  14,  1610,  ii.  488,  489 ;  his  charac- 
ter, ii.  490,  seq.  ;  his  alleged  scheme  of 
a  universal  Christian  republic,  ii.  491, 
492. 

Navarreins,  i.  258. 

Nemours,  conference  at,  i.  344  ;  prescrip- 
tive edict  of,  July  18,  1585,  i.  345. 

Nemours,  Duchess  of,  i.  100. 

Nemours,  Duke  of ,  i.  454;  ii.  44,  100,  199, 
298. 

Ne'rac,  i.  258,  200  ;  difficulties  thrown  in 
the  way  of  the  chamber  of  the  edict 
at,  ii.  437  ;  Protestant  court  of  justice 
at,  ii.  75. 

Nerac,  conference  of,  1578,  i.  187,  seq.  ; 
results  of,  i.  190. 

Netherlands,  the  states  general  offer 
the  sovereignty  to  Henry  III.,  Octo- 
ber, 1584,  i.  294;  the  envoys  shabbily 
treated  by  Henry  HI.,  i.  306  ;  Mendoza 
tries  to  prevent  them  from  being  heard, 
i.  307 ;  failure  of  the  embassy,  i.  310  ; 
the  consequent  loss  to  France,  ib. 

Neufchatel  en  Bray,  ii.  286. 

Neuvy,  i.  440,  note. 

Nevers,  city,  i.  92. 

Nevers,  Louis  de  Gonzagues,  Duke  of, 
his  valuable  "memoires,"  i.  48;  his 
account  of  Henry  III.1  s  little  council, 
i.  127 ;  proposes  a  crusade  against  the 
Huguenots,  i.  154,  158,  230,  298;  re- 
solves to  consult  the  pope,  i.  300  ;  his 
interview  with  Sixtus  V.,  i.  303,  seq., 


423;  ii.  118;  rapid  dissipation  of  his 
army,  ii.  119,  232;  his  unsuccessful 
mission  to  Rome,  ii.  303,  seq. 

Nice,  ii.  298. 

Niort,  i.  80,  387,  note;  ii.  03  ;  capture  of, 
ii.  115,  110,  136,  374. 

Nismes,  conference  at,  i.  47  ;  i.  1K4 
200 ;    assembly  at,   approves    of    Cha- 
tillon's   course,    i.    417 ;    a    Protectant 
city,  ii.   108  ;  Protestant  university  at. 
ii.  477. 

Noisy-le-sec,  i.  113. 

Normandy,    i.     10;    states    of,     protest 
against  taxation,  i.   181,  325  ;  the  par- 
liament of,  unjust  to  the  Prote-- 
ii.  239,    seq.  ;    sale   of  crown  property 
in,  ii.  283.     See  Rouen. 

North,  Lord,  his  instructions  when  sent 
to  France,  i.  27. 

Noue,  Francois  de  la.  "  Bras  de  Fer."  i. 
0,  19,  303;  ii.  75,  154;  his  bravery  at 
the  attack  upon  the  suburbs  of  Paris, 
ii.  185;  his  piety  and  death,  1591.  ii. 
274. 

Noue,  Odet  de  la,  son  of  Francois,  ii. 
393,  396,  397. 

Novels,  i.  4-10,  n< 

Noyon,  taken  by  Henry  IV.,  ii.  273. 

Nuits,  excesses  of  nit-  I 

Nuncio,    papal,  inconsistency  of,  in   at- 
tending the  reception  of  Lord  Derby, 
i.  312;    Henry  ELL 'a   sharp  wot 
i.  320. 

Nuremberg,  city  of,  remonstrates  with 
Henry  II L,  L  402, 

Nyons,  or  Nions,  i.  '.4,  224,  261. 


O,  Francois  d\  superintendent  of  fi- 
nances, ii.  44,  149,  169,  170;  his  re- 
sponsibility for  not  pressing  the  vic- 
tory of  Ivry  and  taking  P 
235;  he  is  indignant  that  any  Hu- 
guenot should  presume  to  ask  an  im- 
portant trust,  ii.  243;  his  disloyalty,  ii. 
292  ;  he  bluntly  interrogates  Henry  of 
Navarre  as  to  his  intentions  before 
the  conference  of  Suresnes,  ii.  3. 

Ole'ron,  lie  d\  i.  158. 

Oleron,  or  Oloron  (town),  i.  i 

"Ondoyement,"  i.  57. 

Orange,  i.   180.  201  ;    Protestant  univer- 
sity at,  ii.  477. 

Orange,  Maurice.  Prince  of .  ii.  421. 

Orange,  William,  Prince  of.  prop 
make   Alenyon  king,  i.  11  ;  givi  - 
counsel    to    Henry    III.,  i.   27  ;    inter- 
cedes for  the  Huguenots,  i.  65. 

Order  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  i.  193. 

Orleans,    l.  4  ;  ii.    130  ;  its  importance  in 
the  hands    of   the  League,    ii.    I    - 
submits  to  Henrv  IV..  ii.  309.  373. 


INDEX. 


519 


Orleans,  Louis  d\  a  Leaguer,  his  pam- 
phlet, i.  313. 

Ornano,  Alphonso,  "  the  Corsican,"  colo- 
nel of  the  Italian  infantry,  a  minor 
favorite  of  Henry  IIT.,  i.  228;  advises 
the  king  to  put  Guise  out  of  the  way, 
ii.  38  ;  ii.  44,  97,  122,  189,  437. 

Orthez,  i.  258;  its  university,  ib.,  note; 
ii.  477. 

Ossat,  Cardinal,  his  remarks  respecting 
the  absence  of  any  attempts  at  reg- 
icide among  the  Huguenots,  ii.  100, 
101  ;  his  efforts  to  obtain  the  absolu- 
tion of  Henry  IV.,  ii.  365. 

Ourcamp,  Abbey  of,  i.  405. 

Ozillac,  ii.  387. 


Paillez,  Viscount  of,  i.  250. 

Palatine.  Count,  i.  253. 

Palatine.  Elector.  See  Frederick  the  Pi- 
ous ;   Casimir,  John,  etc. 

Palissy,  Bernard,  the  potter,  his  his- 
tory, ii.  7.  seq.  ;  visited  in  the  Bastile 
by  Henry  III.,  ii  8;  his  intrepid  re- 
ply to  the  king's  solicitations,  ib. 

Pamiers.  i.  258. 

Panat,  Viscount  of,  i.  250. 

Paris,  fright  of,  i.  03 ;  Huguenots  at- 
tacked at,  i.  113;  opposition  to  sign- 
ing the  League,  i.  140,  160;  the 
plague  at,  i.  208 ;  the  League  at,  i. 
274,  seq.  ;  growth  of  the  League  accord- 
ing to  the  narrative  of  Nicholas  Pou- 
lain.  i.  201,  seq.  ;  the  city  searched  by 
the  king's  orders,  i.  319  ;  refuses  mon- 
ey to  the  king,  i.  855 ;  Henry  of  Na- 
varre's letter  to  the  city,  i.  388 ;  the 
citizens  beg  Guise  to  come,  ii.  33  ;  day 
of  the  barricades  at,  ii.  41,  seq.  ;  its 
municipal  officers  removed  by  the 
League,  ii.  47  ;  how  it  might  be 
punished  by  the  king,  ii.  51  ;  its  de- 
light at  the  publication  of  the  Edict 
of  Union,  ii.  58,  which  the  citizens 
flock  to  sign,  ii.  50 ;  fury  of  the  Pa- 
risians at  the  murder  of  the  Guises,  ii. 
124  ;  attack  of  Henry  IV.  on  the  fau- 
bourgs of  the  city,  ii.  185;  it  is  be- 
sieged by  Henry  IV.,  ii.  211  ;  its  prep- 
arations for  a  siege,  ii.  212 ;  census  of, 
ii.  213 ;  progress  of  famine,  ii.  214 ; 
the  besieged  have  recourse  to  strange 
food.  ii.  210  ;  Gondy,  Bishop  of  Paris, 
and  Espinac,  Archbishop  of  Lyons, 
sent  to  confer  with  Henrv  IV.  respect- 
ing peace,  ii.  217.  seq.  ;  the  city  makes 
no  sorties,  ii.  222,  223  ;  failure  of  a 
nocturnal  attack  upon.  ii.  230 ;  the 
city  is  provisioned,  ii.  231  ;  the  "jour 
desfarines,"  January  20,  1501,  ii.  244; 
retaliatory  action  of  the  rebel  parlia- 
ment, ii.  208,  200  ;  the  citizens  urgent 


for  peace,  ii.  314,  331 ;  it  surrenders  to 
Henry  IV.,  ii.  370. 

Paris,  the  Bishop  of,  on  Huguenot  arbi- 
tration, i.  5. 

Parliament  of  Paris,  the,  remonstrates 
against  the  proscriptive  legislation  of 
Henry  III.  and  the  papal  bull,  i.  370, 
seq.  ;  its  plea  for  liberty  of  conscience, 
ib.  ;  it  is  reprimanded  by  Henry  III., 
ii.  6 ;  it  registers  the  Edict  of  Union, 
ii.  58 ;  its  dignified  conduct  when  Pres- 
ident Le  Maistre  is  arrested,  ii.  120; 
declaration  of  January  30,  1580,  in 
support  of  the  Roman  Catholic  relig- 
ion, ii.  128,  seq.  ;  its  retaliatory  acts, 
ii.  208,  200,  308,  300 ;  it  declares  null 
and  void  any  compact  contrary  to  the 
Salic  law,  ii.  325 ;  dilatoriness  in  reg- 
istering the  Edict  of  Nantes,  ii.  424- 
428 ;  its  pliancy,  ii.  463. 

Parma,  Alexander  Farnese,  Duke  and 
Prince  of,  i.  292  ;  ii.  32  ;  he  comes  to  the 
relief  of  Paris,  ii.  224,  seq.  ;  he  takes 
Lagny  in  the  teeth  of  Henry  IV. ,  ii.  220 ; 
his  retreat,  ii.  2o3  ;  he  again  invades 
France  to  relieve  the  city  of  Rouen,  ii. 
286  ;  his  help  dispensed  with,  ii.  288  ;  he 
is  again  begged  to  return,  ii.  280  ;  he  is 
wounded,  but  makes  a  masterly  retreat, 
ii.  290,  291  ;  his  death,  ii.  203. 

Parry,  William,  i.  285. 

Pasquier,  Etienne,  on  "  la reine  blanche," 
i.  10,  450. 

Pasquin  on  the  ruin  of  the  "Invincible 
Armada,"  ii.  82. 

Patriarchate,  French,  proposed,  ii.  271. 

Patris,  Guillaume  de,  i.  184. 

Pau,  i.  258,  437. 

Paulin,  Viscount,  i.  48,  250. 

Peace  conference  proposed,  ii.  310  ;  invi- 
tation of  the  royalist  nobles,  ii.  317, 
seq. 

Peace  negotiations  of  April,  1575.  i.  48, 
etc.  ;  end  of,  i.  04 ;  peace  of  Monsieur, 
May,  1576,  i.  93,  seq.  ;  its  unpopular- 
ity, i.  97  ;  peace  of  Bergerac  (Poitiers), 
1577,  i.  167;  peace  of  Fleix,  1580,  i. 
210,  seq.  ;  peace  of  Vervins,  May,  1598 
(with  Spain),  ii.  421. 

Pelleve,  Cardinal,  ii.  320,  323,  324. 

Penitents,  the,  i,  38., 

People.    See  Tiers  Etat. 

Pe'rigord,  county  of,  i.  259. 

Perigueux,  i.  94,  224,  259. 

Pe'ronne,  i.  94  ;  league  of,  i.  103  ;  mani- 
festo of,  i.  107 ;  declaration  of,  i.  314, 
seq.  ;  ii.  309. 

Perouse,  valley  of,  ii.  298. 

Perplexity  of  the  persecuting  clergy,  i. 
385. 

Perron,  du,  Bishop  and  Cardinal,  his  ef- 
forts to  secure  the  papal  absolution  of 
Henry  IV.,  ii.  205,  385;  he  charges 
Duplessis  Mornay  with   having   made 


520 


INDEX. 


great  errors  in  his  hook  on  the  Eucha- 
rist, ii.  459  ;  at  the  conference  of  Fon- 
tainebleau,  ii.  461,  seq. 

Peyron,  Madame  du,  i.  228. 

Persecutors,  perplexity  of,  i.  385. 

Petards,  first  used,  i.  206. 

Peyrolles,  ii.  297. 

Pfalzbourg,  i.  442. 

Philip  II.  of  Spain,  i.  105 ;  conspires 
with  the  Guises  and  the  Duke  of  Savoy 
against  France,  i.  285  ;  tries  to  seduce 
the  King  of  Navarre,  ib. ;  he  takes  the 
Guises  into  his  pay,  but  feeds  them 
scantily,  i.  268,  285,  292;  terms  of 
the  treaty  with  the  Guises  and  the 
League,  i.  297  ;  his  designs,  i.  298  ;  his 
"Satanic  craft,"  i.  299,  325;  his  pro- 
crastination, i.  363  ;  he  directs  the  Holy 
League,  ii.  29 ;  his  caution,  ii.  30 ;  he 
claims  Paris  as  "his  city,"  ii.  220; 
claims  Brittany,  and  lands  5,000  troops 
at  Blavet,  ii.  273 ;  his  destiny  pictured 
by  Cardinal  Pelleve',  ii.  324. 

Piacenza,  Cardinal  Sega,  Bishop  of, 
papal  legate,  ii.  277;  his  "exhorta- 
tion "  to  the  loyal  Roman  Catholics,  ii. 
315,  316  ;  he  is  insulted  by  the  Parisian 
people,  ii.  326. 

Pi  brae,  M.  de,  i.  13 ;  at  conference  of 
Nerac,  i.  188. 

Picardy,  i.  103,  200,  202,  223,  323. 

Pierregourde,  i.  83. 

Pignerol  ceded  to  the  Duke  of  Savov,  i. 
15 ;  ii.  298. 

Pinart,  secretary,  ii.  16  ;  removed,  ii.  83. 

Piney,  Francois  de  Luxembourg,  Duke 
of,  ii.  175,  210,  256;  his  letter  to  Greg- 
ory XIV.,  ii.  258  ;  his  instructions,  ii. 
259 ;  he  declines  to  fulfil  his  commis- 
sion, ii.  262. 

Pirmil,  i.  205. 

Pisany,  Jean  de  Vivonne,  Marquis  of,  ii. 
262  ;  sent  to  Italy  with  Cardinal  Gondy, 
but  forbidden  to  enter  the  States  of  the 
Church  by  Clement  VIII. ,  ii.  309-311. 
312. 

Piscator,  controversy  regarding  his  views, 
ii.  455. 

Pithiviers,  ii.  154. 

Pithou,  a  commissioner  at  the  conference 
of  Fontainebleau,  ii.  462. 

Placard  of  1534,  i.  4. 

Plague,  ravages  of,  i.  208. 

Plessis  les  Tours,  ii.  146. 

Poet,  M.  du,  i.  421. 

Pointures,  les,  i.  430. 

Poirson,  Auguste,  historian  of  the  reign 
of  Henry  IV.,  his  account  of  the  di- 
vision of  France  between  the  king  and 
the  League,  ii.  192. 

Poissy,  colloquy  of,  i.  4,  40;  the  turbu- 
lent nuns  of,  i.  228 ;  ii.  154. 

Poitiers,  ii.  372,  374. 

Poitou,  i.  261,  420. 


Polenz,  G.  von,  the  historian,  on  the 
white  plume  of  Henry  IV.,  at  Ivry.  ii. 
240,  241. 

Political  assemblies  :  at  Milhau,  i.  21  ;  at 
Montauban,  i.  197 ;  at  the  same  place 
in  1581 ,  i.  215  ;  at  La  Rochelle,  Novem- 
ber, 1588,  ii.  69;  at  Sainte  Foy,  July, 
1594,  ii.  386;  articles  of,  ii.  388;  at 
Saumur,  February.  1595,  ii.  390 :  at 
Loudun,  April,  1596,  ii.  391,  393;  at 
Vendomeand  Saumur,  1597,  ii.  400  ;  its 
answer  to  Henry  IV.,  March  25,  1597, 
ii.  402-404;  at  Chatellerault,  June, 
1597,  ii.  407,  seq. ;  the  credit  it  d>  - 
for  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  ii.  41  3  ;  the 
Huguenots  set  a  high  value  upon,  ii. 
446  ;  assembly  at    Saumur,  September, 

1600,  ii.  447;  at  Sainte  Foy,   October, 

1601,  ii.  448;  it  elects  two  deputies  gen- 
eral to  reside  at  Paris,  ii.  448 ;  assem- 
bly at  Chatellerault,  July,  1606,  ii. 
450;  assembly  at  Jargeaux,  1608,  iL 
452. 

"  Politiques,"  or  Roman  Catholic  mal- 
contents, allies  of  the  Huguenots,  i. 
22;  their  envoy  derided,  L  ft2 ; 

Pons,  growth  of  Protestantism  at,  i.  282, 
note. 

Pont  a  Mousson,  Henry  II.,  Marquis  of, 
afterward  Duke  of  Lorraine  and  Bar, 
son  of  Charles  III.,  his  birth  and  his- 
tory, i.  456.  note;  he  joins  with  Guise 
in  cruelly  laying  waste  the  county  of 
Munrbrliard,  ib.;  marries  Catharine  of 
Bourbon,  ii.   i 

Pont-Audemer,  ii.  192. 

Pontcarr ■'■,  M.  de,  ii.  ! 

Pontcharra.  Savoyard  and  other  troops 
defeated  at.  by  Leediguieres,  ii.  . 

Pont  de  l'Arche,  ii.  182,  291. 

Pont-1'Eveque,  ii.  192. 

Pontoise,  ii.  154. 

Pont  Saint  Esprit,  on  the  Rhone,  i.  235. 

Pont  Saint  Vincent,  i.  440,  note. 

Ponts-de-Ce,  ii.  143. 

Poulain,  Nicholas,  his  narrative  of  the 
growth  of  the  League  in  Paris,  i.  291, 
seq. 

Pouzin,  Le.  beai<  »  d,  i  :  5. 

Pragelas,  Val.  ii 

Prayers  of  Gabriel  d' Amours,  at  Coutras. 
i.  433,  435,436. 

Preachers,  seditious,  ii.  6. 

Provost,  Jean,  cure  of  St.  Severin,  i. 
275. 

"Prevot  des  Marchands."  the,  his 
speech  at  the  second  states  of  Blois,  ii. 
39.  ^ 

Primaudaye.  M.  de  la,  ii.  393. 

Processions,  naked,  ii.  126. 

"Protector  of  the  Reformed  Churches." 
Henry  of  Navarre,  elected  to  this  office. 
1581,  i.  215;  malcontents  among  the 
Huguenots  talk  of    substituting   John 


INDEX. 


521 


Casimir,  ii.  77,  or  some  other  person,  ii. 

178  ;   ' k protectoral  tyranny,"  ii.  889. 
Provins,  i.  119,  149;  ii.  211. 
Psalms,  Huguenot  psalms,  at  Coutras,  i. 

4-13 ;  at  lie  de  Marans,  ii.  00. 
Puvlaurens,  Protestant  university  at,  ii. 

477. 
Puymirol,  i.  190,  224,260. 


Queyraa,  ii.  29S. 


<! 


it. 


Ra?mond,  Florimond  de,  his  account  of 
the  Huguenot  worship,  i.  277-280 ;  his 
inhumanity,  ii.  387. 

Raneon.  ii.  291. 

Ranke,  L.  von,  i.  23,  33. 

Ranuccio,  Prince,  son  of  the  Duke  of 
Parma,  ii.  291. 

Ravaillac,  Francois,  murders  Henry  IV., 
ii.  488,  489. 

"  Reine  blanche,  la,"  i.  10. 

Reiters,  excesses  of,  i.  SS ;  removed  to 
frontiers,  i.  101;  the  "Army  of  the 
Reiters,"  i.  441-458;  its  bad  conduct, 
ib.;  rivers  to  be  crossed,  i.  444;  Na- 
varre's orders  disregarded,  i.  446  ;  route 
taken  by  the  expedition,  i.  446,  note  ; 
attack  of  Guise  at  Vimory,  i.  449  ;  the 
Swiss  resolve  to  return  home,  i.  451  ; 
retreat  of  the  army,  i.  452 ;  surprise  of 
the  Germans  at  Auneau,  i.  453  ;  they 
accept  a  safe  conduct  to  Germany,  i. 
454 ;  ii.  17-20. 

Religion  not  determined  by  race  or  cli- 
mate, ii.  167. 

Rennes,  i.  166;  ii.  130,  387;  dilatoriness 
of  its  parliament  in  registering  the 
Edict  of  Nantes,  ii.  435. 

Reolle,  la,  i.  167,  188,  211. 

Retz,  Cardinal,  i.  123. 

Retz,  Marshal,  i.  51,  81  ;  his  wife's  im- 
prudent words,  i.  321  ;  ii.  44,  123,  133, 
135. 

Revel,  i  190. 

Revol,  a  secretary  of  state,  ii.  101,  312, 
329. 

Reynaudie,  Godef  roy  de  la,  ii.  414. 

Rheims,  ii.  374. 

Rhodez,  i.  259. 

Richelieu,  Frangois  du  Plessis  de,  ii.  103. 

Rieux,  M.  de,  i.  261,  397. 

Riom,  ii.  371. 

Roche  Chalais,  La,  Joyeuse's  position 
at,  before  the  battle  of  Coutras,  i.  429. 

Roche  Chandieu,  M.  de  la,  a  prominent 
Huguenot  minister,  i.  221 ;  offers  prayer 
at  the  battle  of  Coutras,  i.  431  ;  begs 
Navarre  to  use  his  victory,  i.  440,  note  ; 


ii.  25  ;  dies  of  grief  because  of  the  com- 
ing abjuration,  ii.  267. 

Rochefoueault,  Count  de  la,  i.  261  ;  ii.  118. 

Rochelle,  La,  i.  64 ;  its  caution,  i.  108, 
109;  dispute  with  Conde',  i.  176;  takes 
no  part  in  the  seventh  civil  war,  i.  203 ; 
eleventh  national  synod  at  (June,  1581), 
i.  217 ;  a  refuge  during  the  war  of  the 
League,  i.  383,  426 ;  political  assem- 
bly at,  1588,  ii.  69,  118,  114,  374 ;  re- 
fuses admission  to  the  Jesuits,  ii.  474. 

Rochemorte,  i.  370,  378. 

Rocroy,  ii.  374. 

Rogier,  M.  de,  i.  221. 

Rohan,  Henry,  Duke  of,  son  of  Rene,  ii. 
382,  410. 

Rohan,  Rene,  Viscount  of,  Sieur  de 
Frontenay,  i.  45,  261,  379. 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  high  ec- 
clesiastics in  favor  of  Henry  IV.,  ii. 
193;  the  clergy  undertakes  to  usurp 
the  authority  of  parliament,  ii.  270. 

Roman  Catholic  troops,  i.  93;  reaction, 
i.  115. 

Roquefort,  i.  258  ;  ii.  374. 

Roquelaure,  M.,  ii.  488. 

Rose,  Bishop  of  Senlis,  advocates  a  new 
St.  Bartholomew  massacre,  ii.  273 ;  his 
unexpected  defence  of  the  Salic  law 
and  denunciation  of  Spanish  ambition, 
ii.  325. 

Rosiers,  Les,  i.  378. 

Rosne,  M.  de,  i.  149,  150;  ii.  200. 

Rosny,  ii.  205. 

Rosny,  M.  de.     See  Sully. 

Rotan,  Jean  Baptiste,  a  Protestant  pastor 
and  professor,  ii.  385. 

Rouen,  i.  106,  201,  223  ;  ii.  130  ;  besieged 
by  Henry  IV.,  ii.  283,  seq.;  its  answer 
to  Henry's  summons,  ii.  284;  litanies 
and  processions  at,  ii.  285  ;  successful 
sortie  from,  ii.  287 ;  the  siege  aban- 
doned, ii.  289 ;  surrenders  to  Henry 
IV.,  ii.  371,  373;  dilatoriness  of  its 
parliament  in  registering  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  ii.  435,  439. 

Rouen,  Charles  of  Bourbon,  Archbishop 
of,  asks  his  cousin  Navarre  to  become  a 
Roman  Catholic,  i  271. 

Rouergue,  County  of,  i.  259,  415. 

Roye,  ii.  369. 

Rubempre,  Chevalier,  sent  to  Henry  of 
Navarre  by  the  states  general  of  Blois, 
i.  142. 

Rubys,  Claude  de,  calumniates  the  Hu- 
guenots, i.  170. 

Rucellai  on  the  court  morals,  i.  229. 

Ruse,  Bishop  of  Angers,  his  confession 
of  faith  for  converts  from  Protestant- 
ism, i.  385,  seq. 

Ruvigny,  the  Marquis  of,  ii.  450. 

Ruze,  Martin  de  Beaulieu,  appointed  sec- 
retary of  state,  ii.  84,  175. 

Rye,  a  place  of  Huguenot  refuge,  i.  383. 


>22 


INDEX. 


Sailly,  M.  de,  i.  397. 

Sainctes,  Claude  de,  Bishop  of  Evreux,  i. 
110. 

Saint  Andre',  a  seditious  preacher,  ii.  273. 

Saint  Antoine  des  Champs,  ii.  218. 

Saint  Bris,  or  Brice,  Conference  of,  be- 
tween Catharine  de'  Medici  and  Henry 
of  Navarre,  i.  407,  seq. 

Saint  Cloud,  ii.  127 ;  declaration  of,  ii. 
174. 

Saint  Denis,  near  Paris,  taken  by  Henry 
IV.,  ii.  215,  216  ;  an  attack  on,  led  by 
the  Chevalier  dAumale,  fails,  ii.  244  ; 
' '  instruction "  of  Henry  IV.  at,  ii. 
349  ;  his  abjuration  at,  ii.  353. 

Saint  Die,  i.  379. 

Saint  Dizier,  i.  346 ;  ii.  374. 

Saint  Esprit  de  Rue,  i.  346. 

Saint  Plorent,  i.  379. 

Saint  Gelais,  i.  387,  note. 

Saint  Gelais,  M.  de,  ii.  116. 

Saint  Germain,  M.  de,  ii.  450. 

Saint  Gilles  taken  by  the  Huguenots,  i. 
42. 

Saint  Goard,  M.  de,  i.  120. 

Saint  Jean  d'Angely,  i.  108,  261,  383  ; 
Protestant  court  of  justice  at,  ii.  75  ; 
colloquy  at,  talks  of  electing  a  new 
protector  of  the  Reformed  churches,  ii. 
178 ;  the  Protestant  court  abolished, 
November  10,  1590,  ii.  234. 

Saint  Julien,  M.  de,  secretary  of  Les- 
diguieres,  secures  the  governorship  of 
Grenoble  for  his  master,  ii.  342,  243. 

Saint  L6,  i.  17. 

Saint  Maixent  captured  by  the  Hugue- 
nots, i.  420 ;  retaken  by  Joyeuse,  i.  426  ; 
again  submits  to  the  Huguenots,  ii.  119, 
136. 

Saint  Malo,  ii.  374. 

Saint  Maur,  ii.  323. 

Saint  Paul  de  Cade-jous,  or  Cap  de  Joux, 
i.  350. 

Saint  Paul,  on  the  Durance,  ii.  21)7. 

Saint  Symphorien,  a  suburb  of  Tours, 
attacked,  ii.  149  ;  excesses  of  the  army 
of  the  League  at,  ii.  150. 

Saint  Urbain,  i.  445,  446. 

Sainte  Agreve,  i.  190. 

Sainte  Catherine,  Fort,  reduced  and  de- 
stroyed, ii.  469. 

Sainte  Colombe,  M.  de,  ii.  15,  26. 

Sainte  Foy,  Synod  of,  i.  173,  seq.  ;  243; 
town  of,  i.  261. 

Sainte  Genevieve,  patron  saint  of  Paris, 
ii.  272. 

Saintonge,  i.  261. 

Salic  law,  the,  ii.  321. 

Saluzzo,  Marquisate  of,  invaded  by  the 
Duke  of  Savoy,  ii.  93,  seq. 

.Sancy,  Nicolas  de  Harlay,  Sieur  de, 
goes  to  Switzerland  and  Germany  f  _>r 


troops,  ii.  135,  136,  153;   his  good  ser- 
vices, ii.  169,  seq. 

Sandys,  Sir  Edwin,  on  Protestantism  in 
France,  ii.  442,  seq.;  his  "Em  op* 
Speculum  "  put  on  the  index  of  pro- 
hibited books,  ii.  444 ;  on  the  rumor- 
ed conversion  of  Theodore  Beza.  ii. 
470. 

Sarrebourg,  i.  446,  note. 

Satyre  Menippee,  ii.  323. 

Saumur,  i.  80;  placed  in  the  hand-  of 
Navarre,  and  Duplessis  Mornay  ap- 
pointed governor,  ii.  143  ;  assembly  of 
Huguenots  at,  ii.  400 ;  Protestant  uni- 
versity at,  ii.  477. 

Sauve,  Madame  de,  i.  85 ;  ii.  108,  note. 

Saux,  M.  de,  i.  62. 

Saverdun,  i.  258. 

Savillian  ceded  to  Savoy,  i.  15. 

Savoy,  Charles  Emmanuel,  Duke  of,  his 
designs  on    France,    i.    234,    292;    his 
kind  treatment  of  the  Huguenot  refu- 
gees, i.  383,  3*1;  he  invades  the  Mar- 
quisate of  Saluzzo.   ii.  93  ;   his  preten- 
sions on   the    French    crown,    i: 
opposed  by  the  Parliament  of  Grenohle, 
ii.    189 ;    outrages   of   his    troops   near 
Geneva,  ii.  18'.);  he  invades  Pro 
and  makes  a  pompous  entry  in: 
ii.    233;    defeated   by  LesdiguiCres,   ii. 
276  ;  takes  Antibes,  ii.  2'.'7. 

Savoy,    Emmanuel   Philibert,    Duke   of, 
gives  good  advice  to  Henry  1 1  I 
intercedes  for  the  Hngnen 

Saxonv,  Elector  of,  i.  253  ;  remonstrates 
with  Henry  III.. 

Schaffhausen,  ii.  L36. 

Schomberg,  Gaspard  dr.  purchases  the 
County  of  Nanteuil  le  Hardouin. 
brings  troops  from  Germany,  ii.  158, 
312  ;  he  and  De  Thou  propose  a  peace 
conference,  ii.  316  ;  at  the  Conference  of 
Suresnes,  ii.  329,  380 :  takes  part  in  the 
negotiation  for  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  ii. 
405,  411. 

Sedan,  i.  405,  443  ;  Protestant  university 
at,  ii.  477. 

Scuruiran,  a  Jesuit,  seeks  admission  to  Li 
Rochelle,  ii.  474. 

Segur  Pardaillan   sent  on  a  mission  by 
Henry  of  Navarre,  i.  24<\  seq.  ;   his  in- 
structions, i.  248,  seq.  ;   his  raise 
misrepresented,   i.    252  ;   failure  i 
plan,  i.  253.  260,340,  391. 

Seine,  or  Seyne,  i.  94.  26L 

"Seize,"  or  "Sixteen,"  the,  i 
save  Paris  for  the  League,  ii.  125 
put  to  death  President  Brisson,  ii.  277, 
27S;  their  disloyal  letter  to  Philip  II., 
November  20,  1591  ;  ii.  27S-2S1  ;  their 
demand  for  a  "  chambre  ardente.*'  i:. 
282  ;  their  fall,  ib. 

Senlis,  ii.  130,  153 

Sennecey,  Baron,  at  the  hist  State- 


INDEX. 


523 


eral  of  Blois,  i.  133,  140 ;  at  the  second 
States  of  Blois,  ii.  89. 

Sens,  ii.  130  ;  the  claim  of  its  archbishop 
to  the  primacy  of  France,  ii.  271  ;  it 
opens  its  gates  to  Henry  IV.,  ii.  371, 
374. 

Serres,  town  in  Dauphiny,  i.  04,  224,  201. 

Serres,  Jean  de,  or  Serranus,  a  historian, 
i.  19,  04  ;  regarded  by  Ranke  as  an  ex- 
cellent authority,  i.  23. 

Servetus,  i.  422,  note. 

Seurxe,  ii.  374. 

Sevre  niorbaise,  ii.  03. 

Sfondrato,  Ercole,  nephew  of  Gregory 
XIV.,  created  Duke  of  Montemarciano, 
and  sent,  at  the  head  of  an  army,  to 
France,  ii.  247 ;  outrages  perpetrated 
by  his  forces,  ib. 

Sidney,  Philip,  i.  249. 

Sixtus  V.,  Pope,  his  accession,  1585,  i. 
303  ;  his  interview  with  Nevers,  i.  304  ; 
he  censures  the  League  and  condemns 
the  course  of  Gregory  XIII.,  i.  304, 
305;  he  regards  ambition  as  the  sole 
motive  of  the  League,  ib.  ;  his  mes- 
sage to  Cardinal  Bourbon,  ib.  ;  his 
brief  in  favor  of  the  confederates,  i. 
350  ;  his  anxiety  that  the  League  should 
help  Henry  III.  in  good  earnest,  i.  305, 
300 ;  he  excommunicates  Henry  of 
Navarre,  i.  300;  he  is  challenged  by 
Navarre  in  return,  i.  308 ;  the  printer 
of  his  bull  imprisoned,  i.  374 ;  his  sur- 
prise at  Guise's  escape,  ii.  40  ;  he  sends 
the  duke  a  congratulatory  letter,  ii.  54 ; 
he  summons  Henry  III.  to  Rome,  ii. 
153  ;  his  encomium  of  Jacques  Clement, 
murderer  of  Henry  TIL,  ii.  101,  188; 
his  altered  views,  ii.  209 ;  his  admir- 
ation of  Henry  IV.,  ii.  210 ;  he  is 
denounced  as  a  miser  and  a  favorer 
of  heresy,  ib.  ;  Philip  II.  protests 
against  his  conduct,  ii.  211 ;  his  un- 
popularity and  death,  August  27,  1590, 
ii.  245  ;  the  rumor  that  he  secured  his 
elevation  to  the  pontifical  chair  by  a 
compact  with  Satan,  ii.  240. 

Soissons,  ii.  374. 

Soissons,  the  Count  of,  i.  423  ;  joins  Na- 
varre, and  fights  under  his  standards 
at  the  battle  of  Coutras,  i.  428,  seq. ;  ii. 
27. 

Soleure,  Treatv  of,  May  8.  1579,  i.  192. 

Sommieres,  i.  190,  203,  200. 

Songs,  seditious,  proscribed,  ii.  441. 

Sorbonne,  or  Theological  Faculty  of  the 
University  of  Paris,  declares  that  in- 
competent princes  may  de  deprived  of 
their  governments,  ii.  4  ;  reprimanded 
by  Henry  III.,  ii.  0;  frees  the  people 
from  its  oaths  of  loyalty,  ii.  128  ;  orders 
the  name  of  Henry  III.  to  be  dropped 
from  the  canou  of  the  mass,  ii.  152  ; 
decides  against  Henry  IV.,  ii.  213. 


Souvre,  i.  13. 

Soze,  i.  89. 

Spain.     See  Philip  II. 

Stahelin,  E.,  ii.  328,  et  al. 

Stafford,  Sir  Edward,  English  ambassa- 
dor at  Paris.  His  remarkable  inter- 
view with  Henry  III.,  ii.  10,  seq.  ;  he 
refuses  to  permit  his  house  to  be  draped 
on  Corpus  Christi  day,  ii.  40 ;  his 
conversation  with  Count  Brissac,  sent 
to  him  by  Guise  at  the  time  of  the 
Barricades,  ii.  40;  he  declines  Guise's 
protection,  ii.  47. 

States  General  of  Blois,  the  First,  i.  93  ; 
royal  summons  for,  i.  114 ;  elections 
for,  i.  119;  opening  of,  December  0, 
1570,  i.  128  ;  their  bold  demands,  i.  131 ; 
written  opinions  of  Henry  III.'s  coun- 
cil, i.  130,  seq. ;  addresses  of  the  depu- 
ties of  the  three  orders,  January  17, 
1577,  i.  140,  141 ;  the  tiers  e'tat  reluc- 
tantly consents  to  the  repeal  of  the  edict 
of  pacification,  i.  141  ;  envoys  sent  to 
Navarre,  i.  142 ;  the  tiers  etat  for 
peace,  i.  151  ;  the  Second  States  of 
Blois,  ii.  78,  seq.;  opening  of,  October 
10,  1588,  ii.  84,  6eq.;  they  insist  on 
Henry's  renewal  of  the  oath  of  the 
Union,  ii.  87 ;  they  demand  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  taxes,  ii.  92 ;  their  indigna- 
tion at  the  invasion  of  Saluzzo  by  the 
Duke  of  Savoy,  ii.  94  ;  States  General 
of  the  League,  ii.  323,  seq. 

Statistics  of  the  Protestant  churches  and 
ministers,  ii.  445,  440. 

Strasbourg,  a  Huguenot  refuge,  i.  10 ; 
city  of,  remonstrates  with  Henry  III., 
i.  402. 

Strozzi,  Philip,  i.  79. 

Sully,  Maximilien  de  Bethune,  Baron  of 
Rosny,  later  Duke  of,  blames  the  de- 
lay of  Henry  of  Navarre  after  the 
victory  of  Coutras,  i.  439 ;  at  the  at- 
tack on  the  suburbs  of  Paris,  ii.  180  ; 
favors  the  abjuration  of  Henry  IV.,  ii. 
337;  his  worldly-wise  advice,  ii.  338, 
seq. ;  at  the  Political  Assembly  of  Cha- 
tellerault,  ii.  450,  407. 

Superstition,  popular,  i.  193. 

Sureau,  Jean,  ii.  7. 

Suresnes,  ii.  323 ;  the  conference  of,  ii. 
320,  seq. 

Susa,  ii.  298. 

Swiss  Cantons  intercede  for  the  Hugue- 
nots, i.  65,  399;  defeat  of  Swiss 
auxiliaries,  i.  422 ;  capitulation  of  the 
Swiss  troops  in  the  auxiliary  army  of 
Baron  Dohna,  i.  451,  seq.;  renew  their 
league  with  Henry  IV.,  ii.  191. 

Synods,  National ;  the  ninth,  at  Sainte 
Foy,  1578,  i.  173,  seq.;  it  favors  the 
uirion  of  all  Protestants,  i.  175  ;  action 
on  the  dispute  between  Conde  and  La 
Rochelle,  i.  178  ;  the  tenth,  at  Fige'ac, 


INDEX. 


1579,  i.  196 ;  the  eleventh,  at  La  Ro- 
chelle,  June,  1581,  i.  217;  synod  of 
Montauban,  1594,  ii.  384  ;  at  Jargeaux, 
1600,  ii.  448  ;  at  La  Rochelle,  March, 
1607,  ii.  451 ;  it  declines  to  assume  the 
functions  of  a  political  assembly,  ib.  ; 
list  of  the  national  synods,  ii.  452,  453 ; 
synod  of  Gap,  ii.  453. 


Talmont  taken  by  the  Huguenots,  i.  420. 

Tanlay,  i.  397,  446. 

Tarbes,  i.  258. 

Tardif,  a  judge  of  the  Chatelet,  put  to 
death  by  the  "Seize,"  ii.  278. 

Tartas,  i.  258. 

Tassis,  Juan  Bap tistade,  Spanish  ambas- 
sador, i.  284,  296 ;  ii.  209. 

Tavannes,  Viscount,  ii.  154,  199. 

Taxation ;  its  reduction  demanded,  i. 
61. 

"Temples,"  spacious  Huguenot,  their 
construction,  ii.  480. 

Terrides,  Baron,  i.  48. 

Thore',  Guillaume  de,  a  younger  Montmo- 
rency, i.  15 ;  his  defeat  at  Dormans, 
October  11,  1575,  i.  79  ;  becomes  leader 
of  the  Huguenots  of  Languedoc,  i.  1<',4. 

Thou,  Christopher  de,  First  President  of 
the  Parliament  of  Paris,  falsely  ac- 
cused of  favoring  the  League,  i.  114  ; 
ii.  464. 

Thou,  Jacques  Auguste  de,  the  historian, 
vindicates  the  Huguenots  from  the 
charge  of  inhumanity  at  the  capture 
of  Niort,  ii.  118,  129,  153,  368;  he  and 
Schomberg  propose  a  peace  conference, 
ii.  316 ;  his  account  of  the  confer- 
ence of  Suresnes,  ii.  326,  seq.;  takes 
part  in  negotiating  for  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  ii.  405,  seq. ;  a  commissioner 
at  the  Conference  of  Fontainebleau,  ii. 
462,  seq. 

"  Three  bishoprics,"  the,  i.  90,  seq.;  323. 

Throkmorton,  Francis,  i.  285. 

Thymerais,  i.  259. 

"  Tiers  Etat,"  its  wretched  condition,  i. 
72,  73,  150;  for  peace,  i.  151. 

"Tiers  Parti,"  or  Malcontents,  under 
Henry  IV.  ;  origin  of,  ii.  249 ;  calls  on 
Henry  to  abjure,  ii.  251,  seq. 

Tixier,  M.,  ii.  388. 

Toleration,  religious,  progress  of,  i.  148, 
351,  370. 

Tonnay  Charente,  i.  426. 

Touche,  M.  de  la,  i.  383. 

Toul,  i.  323,  346. 

Toulon,  ii.  298. 

Toulouse,  Parliament  of ,  defies  Damville's 
authority,  i.  17 ;  intolerance  of,  i.  289 ; 
murder  of  President  Duranti,  ii.  130 ; 
decree  of,  in  honor  of  the  assassination 


of  Henry  III.,  ii.  180,  374;  dilatoriness 
in  registering  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  ii. 
435,  438. 

Touraine,  L  200. 

Tours,  i.  193 ;  the  loyal  Parliament  of 
Paris  transferred  by  Henry  III  to 
Tours,  ii.  142  ;  attacked  by  Mayenne,  ii. 
149,  150;  convocation  of  the  .breach 
bishops  at,  forbidden  by  Cardinal  Caje- 
tan,  ii.  194 ;  the  parliament  objects  to 
the  Duke  of  Piney's  mission  to  Home, 
ii.  202  ;  registers  the  edict  re-estab- 
lishing the  edicts  of  pacification  and 
denounces  the  pope,  ii.  20b :  resents 
the  usurpation  of  the  clergy,  ii.  "J?". 
370,  373. 

Treacherous  disguises,  i.  06. 

Tremblaye,  M.  de  la.  ii.  66. 

Tremouille,  Catharine  Charlotte  de  la, 
marries  Henry  of  Conde,  i.  397  ;  is  sus- 
pected of  his  murder,  ii.  21  ;  her  trial 
and  imprisonment,  ib. 

Tre'mouille,  Claude  de  la,  at  Coutras,  i. 
430,  seq. ;  ii.  75,  1 1 8,  382,  408. 

Trent,  Decrees  of  the  Council  of,  i.  242 ; 
ii.  57,  324.  441 . 

Troves,  ii.  371.  374. 

Truce,  a  partial,  in  Poitou.  etc.,  i.  19  ;  for 
seven  months,  i.  80  ;  honorable  truce  of 
Vivarais,  i.  82,  seq.  ;  between  Henry 
III.  and  Henry  of  Navarre  and  the 
Huguenots,  April  26,  1589,  ii.  14 2 
j  the  Huguenots  propose,  in  1598,  to  r-  - 
vive  this  truce,  ii.  :;(.»4. 

Turenne,  Viscount  of.  i.  259;  his  a 
in  the  Huguenot  council. 
at  the  battle,  of  Contras,  i.  430,  m 
75,   225  ;  his   successes  near  Sedan,   ii. 
294  ;  he  marries  Charlotte  de  la  Marck, 
and  is  made  Duke  of  Bouillon,  ib.     B* 
Bouillon. 


Ulm,  city  of,  remonstrates  with  Henrv 
III.,  i.402. 

Unity,   religious,    an    attempt    to   attain 
it  in  a  conference  at  Frankfort.    B 
tember.  1577,  i.  177. 

Universities,  Huguenot,  one  to  be  estab- 
lished at  La  Rochelle,  ii.  70 ;  the 
eighth  Protestant,  ii.  477,  seq. 

Universities,  State,  ii.  476. 

Urban  VIII.,  Pope,  ii.  240. 

Uriage,  i.  422. 

Uzes,  i.  260. 

Uzes,  Duke  of,  i.  82 


V. 

Vabres,  i.  259. 

"  Vache  a  Colas,  la,"1  a  seditious  song,  for- 
bidden, ii.  441. 


INDEX. 


525 


Valette,  Bernard  de  la,  brother  of  the 
Duke  of  Epernon,  defeats  the  Swiss 
auxiliaries,  i.  42*2 ;  ii.  44  ;  he  surprises 
Toulon,  ii.  190,  274. 

Valette,  Jean  Louis  de  la.     See  Epernon. 

Vassy,  massacre  of,  i.  6. 

Vaudois,  or  Waldenses,  ii.  298. 

Vaugirard,  ii.  1S4. 

Velay,  i.  2(50. 

Yenuissin,  Comtat.  See  Comtat  Venais- 
sin. 

Yendome,  Protestant  worship  excluded 
from,  i.  '2:23  ;  Duchy  of,  i.  259,  260 ;  ii. 
192. 

Venice,  Henry  III.  at,  i.  14;  the  first 
state  to  recognize  Henry  IV.,  ii.  191. 

Ventadour,  Count,  proposes  radical  re- 
forms, i.  91. 

Verdun,  i.  323,  346. 

Vermanton,  i.  446,  note. 

Verneuil,  ii.  371. 

Vernon,  ii.  2S4. 

Versoris,  deputy  of  the  tiers  etat  at 
Blois,  forgets  the  qualification  k"  with- 
out   war,"   in  his   address,    i.    140;    is 

blamed,  i.  151. 

Vervius,  peace  of,  May,  1598,  ii.  421. 

Vezins,  M.  de,  the  brave  governor  of 
Cahors,  loses  his  life  in  defending  the 
city  against  Henry  of  Navarre,  i.  206 ; 
another  of  the  same  name  brings  re- 
enforcements  to  Lesdiguieres,  i.  422. 

Vic,  a  deputy  of  the  king  to  the  Hugue- 
not assembly  of  Loudun,  ii.  399,  411. 

Vieilleville,  M.  de,  ii.  479. 

Vienna,  town  of,  ii.  297. 

Vienne,  Archbishop  of,  sent  by  the  states 
general  of  Blois  to  Henry  of  Navarre, 
i.  142. 

Villemur,  ii.  295. 

Villeueuve  d'Agenois,  seized  by  Marshal 
Biron,  i.  171,  258  ;  ii.  372,  374. 

Villequier,  Rene  de,  i.  13;  his  plea  for 
war,  i.  32 ;  in  Germany,  i.  153 ;  his 
treachery,  i.424;  ii.  37. 

Villeroy,  secretary  of  state,  i.  327  ;  ii.  34, 
54;  his  treachery,  ii.  81  ;  he  gives  May- 
enne  good  advice,  ii.  194 ;  his  negotia- 
tion with  Duplessis  Mornay,  ii.  301. 

Vimory,  the  reiters  of  Dohna  attacked  at, 
by  Guise,  Mayenne,  etc.,  i.  449. 

Vincennes,  castle  of,  surrenders  to  the 
League,  ii.  49,  127. 

Vitri,  one  of  the  queen's  maids  of  honor, 
her  joy  at  Guise's  coming  to  Paris,  ii. 
36. 


Vitry,  governor  of  Meaux,  ii.  373. 

Vivarais,  or  Vivarez,  truce  of,  an  honora- 
ble compact,  i.  82,  seq.;  also,  i.  260,  457. 

Viviers,  i.  82,  85. 

Vivoune,  ii.   136. 

Villars,  Andre  de,  the  brave  defender  of 
Rouen  against  Henry  IV.,  ii.  285,  seq.; 
appointed  admiral  of  France,  and  takes 
part  in  the  conference  of  Suresnes,  ii. 
328. 

Vosges  Mountains,  i.  442. 

Vouziers,  ii.  283. 

Vulson,  M.  de,  ii.  394. 


W. 

Walsingham,  Sir  Francis,  i.  243,  285. 

War,  the  sixth  civil,  i.  158,  seq.;  con- 
cluded by  the  Edict  of  Poitiers  (Peace 
of  Bergerac),  i.  165,  seq  ;  the  seventh, 
or  "  Guerre  des  Amoureux,"  i.  200,  seq.; 
its  questionable  necessity,  i.   203,   204. 

Warwick,  Earl  of,  i.  243. 

Weyer,  Dr.,  envoy  of  the  elector  palatine, 

i.34: 

Willoughby,  Lord,  brings  help  to  Henry 
IV.  from  Queen  Elizabeth,  ii.  184. 

Winchelsea,  the  Huguenot  refugees  at,  i. 
383. 

Worship,  Protestant  places  of,  fixed  at 
the  most  inconvenient  spots,  i.  201  ;  ac- 
count of,  by  Florimond  de  Rasmond,  i. 
277-280. 

Wurtemberg,  Count  Frederick  of,  i.  400. 

Wurtemberg,  Duke  of,  i.  253 ;  remon- 
strates with  Henry  III.,  i.  331. 


Xavier,  Francis,  his  canonization  urged 
upon  the  pope  by  Henry  IV.,  ii.  474. 


Yolet,  one  of  the  "  fronts d'airain,"  i.  51. 
Yvetot,  the  story  of  the  •"kingdom  "  of, 
ii.  290. 


Zurich,  ii.  135. 

Zweibriicken,  or  Deux  Ponts,  Duke  of,  i. 
253. 


THE  HUGUENOTS  AND  THE  REVOCATION 
OF  THE   EDICT   OF   NANTES 


In    Two   Volumes.     Octavo.    $7.50. 

Uniform   with  the  "  Rise  of  the   Huguenots"   and   the   "Huguenots 
and    Henry   of   Navarre" 


In  this  history,  which  concludes  the  historical  series  of  which  the  two 
works  heretofore  published  form  a  part,  the  author  treats  a  theme  different 
but  not  inferior  in  interest  to  the  story  told  in  those  works.  The  scene  opens 
with  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  the  Magna  Charta  of  Huguenot  rights,  in  full 
force,  at  the  death  of  its  author,  Henry  IV.  of  France.  Before  long  the 
attempt  to  abridge  the  privileges  guaranteed  to  the  Huguenots  is  made. 
The  immediate  consequence  is  seen  in  three  successive  wars,  in  which  the 
interest  centers  about  the  person  of  the  brave  and  chivalrous  Henry  of  Rohan 
and  the  gallant  defense  of  the  city  of  La  Rochelle.  With  the  fall  of  La 
Rochelle  the  Huguenots  as  a  political  party  disappear  from  history  ;  but 
under  the  tolerant  regime  of  the  two  cardinal  ministers,  Richelieu  and 
Mazarin,  they  become  as  noted  for  their  advance  in  the  arts  of  peace  as  they 
had  previously  been  distinguished  in  war.  Their  prosperity  is  rudely  inter- 
rupted when  Louis  XIV.,  reaching  his  majority,  begins  his  personal  reign; 
and  with  that  reign  is  inaugurated  a  petty,  but  unrelenting,  persecution 
which  culminates  in  the  formal  recall  of  the  Edict.  The  Dragonnades  that 
preceded  and  accompanied  the  recall,  and  the  great  emigration  which  was 
one  of  its  direct  fruits,  have  attained  a  world-wide  fame.  Professor  Baird 
has  depicted  this  period  in  its  tragic  detail.  His  work  contains  in  particular 
an  account,  fuller,  perhaps,  than  has  elsewhere  been  given  in  English,  of 
that  romantic  episode,  the  War  of  the  Camisards — a  struggle  in  itself  worthy 
of  the  treatment  here  accorded  to  it  as  a  distinct  and  complete  transaction. 
It  was  not,  however,  by  force  of  arms  that  the  Huguenot  cause  was  to  be 
resuscitated.  That  honor  belongs  to  the  more  quiet  but  not  less  heroic 
virtues  of  the  preachers  of  the  so-called  "Desert" — Antoine  Court,  Paul 
Rabant,  and  their  associates.  Their  work  receives,  consequently,  full  recog- 
nition at  the  hands  of  the  author.  It  constitutes,  in  some  regards,  the  most 
fascinating  part  of  the  subject  of  the  book.  The  reign  of  proscription  ends 
with  the  Edict  of  Toleration  issued  by  Louis  XVI.,  and  the  Declaration  of  the 
Rights  of  Man  at  the  beginning  of  the  French  Revolution.  In  the  formal 
acknowledgment  of  Protestantism  as  the  religion  of  a  considerable  part  of 
the  French  nation,  made  by  Napoleon  Bonaparte  as  First  Consul,  in  the  second 
year  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  history  reaches  its  natural  conclusion 


HISTORY 

OF   THE 


RISE  OF  THE  HUGUENOTS  OF  FRANCE 

By   HENRY   M.   BAIRD 

PROFESSOR    IN    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    THE    CITY    OF     NEW     YORK 


With  Map.      Two   Volumes.      Octavo.      $5.00 

The  rise  of  the  Protestants  of  France  was  one  of  the  most  important,  as  it  was  one 
of  the  most  brilliant  and  heroic,  of  those  great  struggles  for  civil  and  religious  liberty 
that  followed  the  Reformation.  But  it  has  hitherto  wanted  a  historian  who  could  bring 
to  its  treatment  the  peculiar  talent  which  makes  such  a  period  fairly  livhirj  to  the 
reader's  mind.  The  intense  action  and  striking  scenes  included  in  the  half-century 
which  these  volumes  cover,  are  hardly  surpassed  in  modern  history.  Professor  Baird 
has  told  the  story  with  a  vigor  and  force  which  make  it  stir  the  reader  with  the  tru^ 
spirit  and  feeling  of  the  time.  The  high  praise  may  be  given  to  his  history,  that, 
accurate  and  judicial  as  it  is,  it  cannot  be  read  coldly. 


CRITICAL     NOTICES. 

"A  harmonious  and  symmetrical  history  of  one  of  the  most  stirring  and  desperate  struggles 
for  freedom  of  thought  and  liberty  of  opinion  which  the  world  has  witnessed.'" — Boston  A  a 

"Prof.  Baird's  'History  of  the  Rise  of  the  Huguenots  of  France'  is  the  most  important  and 
original  work  of  its  class  that  has  appeared  in  this  country  for  several  years." — Philadelph . 

"  To  the  vital  merit  of  fidelity— making  no  sacrifice  of  truth  for  dramatic  effect — the 
adds  the  charm  of  an  animated  and  lucid  recital  of  the  thrilling  events  of  the  period  under  con- 
sideration."— New  York  Observer. 

11  With  an  accurate,  clear,  and  calm  judgment,  the  author  has  expressed  himself  in 
most  suitable  for  such  a  history — simple  and  attractive  from  its  plain  and  unimpaired,  and  there- 
fore most  trustworthy  statements." — Episcopal  Register. 

•'Prof.  Baird's  narrative  is  founded  on  thorough  researches,  and  is  an  accurate  and  impartial, 
and  at  the  same  time  vivid  description  of  the  progress  of  the  Reformation  in  France,  from  its 
beginning  to  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Charles  IX."' — Prof.   FlSHEE  in  the  Neto  I 

"This  book  is  written  in  a  style  clear  and  vigorous,  spirited  and  very  attractive  j  the  narrative 
never  flags  in  interest,  and  is  all  along  enlivened  by   the   most  interesting  personal  deta 
less  noteworthy  is  the  excellent  balance  of  judgment  in  the  estimate  of  character  and  events." — 
Hartford  Co  n  r a  fit. 

"  Prof.  Baird's  work  is  so  finely  constructed  and  so  perfectly  put  together  that  no  hint  as  to 
the  nature  of  this  or  that  part  can  present  any  fair  idea  of  the  whole.  We  regard  it  as,  in  some 
respects,  the  best  example  of  historical  writing  on  foreign  subjects  which  this  country  has  yet 
produced." —  The  Churchman. 

"The  two  solid  volumes  of  Prof.  Henry  Baird's  'Rise  of  the  Huguenots  of  France'  seem  to 
us  likely  to  take  a  classical  position  among  American  historical  writings.  .  .  .  Looking  for  a 
word  with  which  to  characterize  Professor  Baird's  work,  we  are  tempted  to  use  neatness.  .  .  . 
To  find  the  results  of  clean,  scholar-like  investigation,  expressed  in  a  lucid,  consecutive,  an  I 
sober  narrative,  gives  a  sense  of  positive  satisfaction  to  the  critical  reader  which  the  finest  of  fine 
writing  is  powerless  to  bestow." — Nation. 

"The  fruits  of  the  author's  studious  labors,  as  presented  in  these  volumes,  attest  his  diligence, 
his  fidelity,  his  equipoise  of  judgment,  his  fairness  of  mind,  his  clearness  of  perception,  and  his 
accuracy  of  statement.  .  .  .  While  the  research  and  well-digested  erudition  exhibited  in  this 
work  are  eminently  creditable  to  the  learning  and  scholarship  of  the  author,  its  literary  execution 
amply  attests  the  excellence  of  his  taste,  and  his  judgment  and  skill  in  the  art  of  composition. 
.  .  .  The  mort  conspicuous  features  of  his  writing  are  purity  and  force  of  diction,  with  felicity 
of  arrangement ;  but  there  are  not  infrequent  passages  in  the  narrative  equally  striking  for  their 
simple  beauty  and  quiet  strength.  His  work  is  one  of  the  most  important  recent  contributions  to 
American  literature,  and  is  entitled  to  a  sincere  greeting  for  its  manifold  learning  and  scholarly' 
spirit." — New  York  Tribune. 


The  Huguenots  and  Henry  of  Navarre 

BY    HENRY   M.    BAIRD 

PROFESSOR     IN    THE     UNIVERSITY     OF     THE     CITY     OF     NEW     YORK;     AUTHOR     OF    "THE 
HISTORY    OF    THE    RISE    OF   THE     HUGUENOTS   OF   FRANCE." 


With  Maps.     Two  Volumes.    8vo.     $5.00. 

Professor  Baird  gives  an  account  of  the  persistent  struggle  of  the  Huguenots  of 
France  to  secure  a  fair  degree  of  religious  liberty,  such  as  they  finally  attained  in 
the  Edict  of  Nantes  ;  fifteen  years  of  the  struggle  (1574-1589)  falling  in  the  reign  of 
their  deadly  enemy,  Henry  III.,  and  nine  more  (1589-1598)  in  the  reign  of  the  friendly 
Henry  of  Navarre,  now  known  in  history  as  Henry  IV.,  of  France.  The  book 
narrates  the  story  of  the  heroic  and  unflinching  determination  which  finally  secured 
the  Edict  of  Nantes,  the  last  chapter  giving  a  sketch  of  the  halcyon  days  of 
Protestantism  in  France  under  the  Edict,  and  down  to  the  death  of  Henry  IV. 
The  work,  while  distinct  in  itself,  is  supplementary  to  the  author's  "  The  Rise  of 
the  Huguenots  of  France." 


CRITICKL    NOTICES. 

"  Professor  Baird,  of  New  York,  is  the  only  living  American  author  worthy  to  compare  with 
Irving,  Prescott  and  Motley,  as  writers  of  the  history  of  foreign  countries." 

— Philadelphia  Evening  Bulletin. 

"  The  narrative  is  written  with  a  grace  and  finish  which  remind  one  of  Motley,  there  is  the 
same  ease  of  manner  and  the  air  of  understanding  the  subject  perfectly,  the  writer  having  studied 
it  diligently  from  many  sides." — Brooklyn   Union. 

"  Professor  Baird  has  established  for  himself  a  high  and  secure  position  among  American 

historians His  style  is  very  clear  and  correct,  his  preparation  is  conscientious  and 

thorough  ;  he  possesses  great  skill  in  the  selection  and  arrangement  of  his  material,  and  he  has 
given  us  a  thoroughly  interesting  and  valuable  work." — Nation. 

"  The  professor  belongs  to  the  advanced  wing  of  the  modern  school  of  historians.  His  mind 
is  as  free  from  prejudice  as  possible.  His  researches  are  minute  and  patient,  omitting  no  details 
which  shed  even  the  faintest  light  upon  his  great  subject.  His  narrative  style  is  animated,  com- 
paring favorably  with  that  of  Motley  while  differing  from  it.  .  .  .  Qualifications  such  as  these 
would  make  almost  any  history  interesting.  When  the  theme  is  the  varying  fortunes  of  the 
Huguenots  during  the  most  critical  epoch  of  their  struggles  for  religious  liberty,  gifts  like  those  of 
Professor  Baird  shine  to  extraordinary  advantage." — N.  Y.  yournal of  Commerce. 

"  Professor  Baird's  '  History  of  the  Rise  of  the  Huguenots  of  France' published  some  years  ago, 
was  so  well  received  on  all  hands,  that  to  the  writer  was  assigned  a  place  by  the  side  of  the  best 
American  historians.  .  .  .  The  present  volumes  are  a  continuation  of  the  story  so  well  told  and 
so  full  of  interest  to  the  lovers  of  freedom  in  religion  as  well  as  in  the  State." — New  York   Times. 

"  It  was  indeed  a  stirring  drama  which  was  enacted  in  these  two  reigns,  and  the  rapid  succes- 
sion of  incidents  and  sudden  development  of  unexpected  situations  offer  a  tempting  subject  for  the 
historical  writer.  Professor  Baird  has  already  made  so  distinguished  a  reputation  by  the  closeness 
of  his  researches  into  Huguenot  records,  his  patient  study  of  original  and  not  very  accessible 
authorities,  and  the  strength  of  his  sympathies,  that  it  is  almost  superfluous  to  call  attention  to  the 
fresh  display  of  these  qualities  in  the  present  volumes.  He  is  entitled  to  a  prominent  place  among 
the  American  scholars  who  have  treated  history  not  as  a  mere  literary  exercise  but  as  an  exact 
science." — New  York   Tribune. 


PROF.    BAIRD   AND   HIS  WORK 


"Several  years  ago  Professor  Baird  published  a  'History  of  the  Rise  of  the 
Huguenots  in  France,'  which  was  characterized  by  judicial  moderation  of  tone,  and  by 
a  rare  faculty  of  seizing  and  emphasizing  outstanding  points  in  the  history  of  the  time. 
.  .  .  It  was  only  natural  that  the  author,  whose  success  in  depicting  the  period 
of  reverse  had  been  acknowledged,  should  be  encouraged  by  that  success  to  continue 
his  labors  in  the  same  field.  The  result  is  seen  in  the  work  on  'The  Huguenois  and 
Henry  of  Navarre.'  It  puts  on  the  stage  the  second  act  in  a  great  drama.  .  .  . 
Professor  Baird  indicates  in  the  preface  to  the  work  a  desire,  if  not  an  intention,  to 
complete  his  labors  by  writing  the  history  of  the  Catholic  reaction  in  France.  There 
is  every  reason  to  hope  that  he  may  be  induced  to  fulfill  this  purpose.  He  has  shown 
capacity  for  historical  investigation  and  he  has  alighted  on  an  interesting  period  of 
European  history.  It  is  an  interesting,  but  not  an  unaccountable,  fact  that  the 
struggle  for  freedom  of  conscience  both  in  the  Netherlands  and  in  France  should  have 
strong  attractions  for  American  writers.  The  aim  of  Professor  Baird  is  the  same  as 
that  of  Mr.  Motley,  though  in  a  different  part  of  the  field." — Scotsman,  Edinburgh. 

"Professor  Baird  is  entitled  to  a  place  among  the  distinguished  Americans  who 
take  high  rank  among  modern  historians.  Some  of  them,  like  Prescott,  Motley,  and 
Bancroft,  are  become  at  least  as  popular  abroad  as  with  their  countrymen.  .  .  . 
Much  must  depend,  no  doubt,  on  the  choice  of  a  subject,  and  so  far  as  the  selection  oi' 
his  subject  goes,  Mr.  Baird  has  had  everything  in  his  favor.  The  story  of  the  ri.'-e  and 
struggles  of  the  Huguenots  must  enlist  the  sympathies  not  merely  of  earnest  Protestants, 
but  of  all  the  admirers  of  freedom  and  progress.  Mr.  Baird  has  undertaken  to  eluci- 
date the  history  of  an  epoch  that  is  rich  in  the  many  materials  of  romance.  He  has 
to  dilate  on  the  serene  constancy  of  martyrs  and  the  chivalrous  courage  of  soldiers  and 
gentlemen.  He  has  succeeded  in  throwing  new  and  original  lights  upon  characters 
who  have  been  flattered  or  abused  in  the  hottest  spirit  of  partisanship,  and  whose  way- 
ward changes  of  conduct  and  policy  have  made  them  standing  enigmas  to  students  of 
the  times.  He  has  studied  his  subject  conscientiously.  .  .  .  Mr.  Baird  has  done 
justice  to  a  theme  which  deserved  a  sympathetic  and  eloquent  historian.  His  arrange- 
ment is  admirably  lucid  ;  his  style  is  clear,  terse,  and  vigorous  ;  his  facts  are  carefully 
marshalled  in  chronological  order,  while  they  are  made  to  converge  towards  the  com- 
mon center  of  interest  at  the  Parisian  Court  ;  the  lights  and  shades  of  his  characters 
are  dashed  in  with  an  assured  hand,  on  a  comparison  of  the  most  reliable  contem- 
porary evidence  ;  and  the  manners  and  the  stirring  scenes  of  the  times  are  depicted 
with  a  picturesqueness  which  leaves  little  to  desire." — The  London  Times. 

"  Mr.  Baird  has  proved  himself  an  able  and  earnest  champion  of  the  French 
Huguenots.  .  .  .  We  thoroughly  endorse  his  interesting  narrative  of  their  vicissi- 
tudes and  persecutions,  their  loyalty  and  courage,  and  their  steadfast  determination 
to  uphold  and  practice  the  tenets  of  their  religion.  The  various  stirring  events  that 
culminated  in  the  Edict  of  Nantes  have  been  skillfully  handled,  and  they  either  suc- 
eeed  or  are  fitted  into  one  another  in  a  masterly  manner." — Spectator ,  London. 


CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

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